The meeting in the library had wrapped up almost twelve hours ago, and Harry’s mind was still spinning. He had been up most of the night, primarily arguing with Diggory’s ghost in hushed tones about what he had apparently learned about the Marauder’s Map the night before. All he managed to figure out during this time was that he needed to give the map a test run while turned off when he got it back from Felicity and see what happened. The little bit of sleep he did get was filled with nightmares about Sirius and James disappearing in a swirly, messy wave.

He ate toast as soon as breakfast began and then milled around the castle a little bit, not wanting to be the first in line to leave for the village, especially considering that he was running on no good sleep and had nowhere to be until lunchtime. The chances of him getting himself into trouble without any adult supervision were simply too high. Still, the castle seemed to have no ability to distract him from his thoughts, so he ended up making his way to the castle doors before the line was very long and thus getting to Hogsmeade before the village was too crowded with students.

He wandered around a bit, but it seemed like almost every bit of the village held some kind of memory he didn’t want to dwell in, either from the months Sirius had spent hiding there, the times he had over the last few years with his friends, or the terrible date he had been on last year. As a result, he ended up at the Three Broomsticks when it was barely eleven o’clock, though he didn’t expect Felicity for quite some time after that.

He bought a copy of the Daily Prophet from a stand near the door and a butterbeer from the bar before settling in at a table with a good view of the door, but that was mostly out of the way of the other patrons. He had planned to spend most of his wait snorting at the mostly worthless advice the paper had almost daily for fighting off Death Eaters, but instead spent most of it scowling across the pub at Skyler and Draco, who seemed to be here on a date, and who thankfully didn’t notice him. He really had no idea what she saw in that git.

Before he knew it, a now becoming familiar blonde head bobbed through the door. Harry waved her over and motioned to the bar that he needed a couple more butterbeers, as he had finished his first one at some point while he was glaring at the back of Malfoy’s head. He managed to pick up the bottles, pay for them, and get back to the table right about when the Hufflepuff sat down.

“So, did you get any sleep last night or did you spend the entire time trying to get our dads to do something besides make dated jokes at each other’s expense?” he asked with a grin. He really did hope she had done well with the Map, but he thought he should start with a joke, just to lighten the mood in case it hadn’t gone well.

Felicity had gotten maybe two hours of sleep Friday night after her meeting with Harry and the subsequent discovering of the parchment he had given her. Well, let her borrow. But either way, she was left with so many questions and so little time. It was overwhelming, really, and the Hufflepuff didn’t even know where to start.

She’d gone back to her dorm and plopped down on her bed, casting a silencing spell over her four poster so as not to wake her dorm mates. Felicity had stared at the ‘map’ for a good twenty minutes before a now-familiar scrawl graced the page.

You still with us, babydoll?

From her dad’s encouragement, she’d gotten back her nerve and started asking questions. It seemed they were limited with what they could answer though, as some things she asked were met with silence or half answers, mostly from Mr. Moony. She’d managed to get Prongs and Padfoot to argue again a couple of times, but took Harry’s method from earlier and lectured them into quieting down.

So far she’d learned that her dad had a lot of attitude and was pretty funny, and Harry’s dad could sure hold his own as well. She’d tried to ask about Lupin and where he was now, but that was met with no answers, so she figured they might not be able to say much about the present. She did find out that Sirius loved her mum, which Harry’s dad teased him about for nearly a half an hour. The rat tried to talk once, but was barked down and remained silent the rest of the night.

Felicity had some interesting things to tell Harry about, but she was so tired she was afraid she might pass out in her lunch. She’d pulled herself out of bed and slipped on a long, cream colored sweater with a brown camisole underneath. She wore black leggings as well, with brown canvas flats. Of course, she wanted to look nice for Harry even if she was exhausted. Pulling her hair up into a full ponytail, Felicity smiled at her wavy curls and fluffed her bangs before slipping on some gold jewelry and slipping her wand between her scalp and the tie of her ponytail.

Once she was ready, Felicity ran out of the castle and made her way to the village, hoping she hadn’t kept Harry waiting. The map and her change pouch were in her hand as she entered the pub, spotting him and grinning despite the yawn that threatened to escape her lips. She accepted the drink with a nod and a shake of her head, laughing lightly at his question. Sliding into the booth, Felicity made herself comfortable and offered the parchment to her companion.

”I had a bit of luck, though there were plenty of bad jokes, too.” she took a sip of the warming liquid and finally allowed the yawn to come out. ”I didn’t get much sleep, no. I was too busy learning how much our dads enjoy teasing each other.” Felicity smiled, her stomach letting out a mighty growl. With a slight blush, she laughed and looked at Harry with wide eyes. ”So, what’s for lunch?”

Harry hung his quidditch Captain's jacket over his chair, revealing the long sleeved green shirt he had been wearing over jeans when he sat back down. Apparently spending so much time this year around people who only wore the school uniform when they had to was beginning to rub off on Harry. Hermione would be absolutely mortified if she found out, and Harry was sure she would. She found out basically everything he did, even when he made the trouble of trying to hide it from her, and this really didn't seem to be worth hiding. She was always going to have something to lecture him about. It might as well be the way he dressed rather than something more serious.

He motioned to the waitress as he took his seat, not wanting to keep running back and forth to the bar now that Felicity was here. "That makes two of us on the sleep thing," Harry said, doing his best to stifle a yawn. "At least it wasn't a waste of your time."

The waitress came over rather quickly, keeping him from adding anything else. "The perks of fame, being served quickly in a crowded pub," Harry whispered out of the side of his mouth to Felicity as she came over, pad in hand. "I'll have the Shepard's pie, and the lady will have whatever she wants, on me," he said with a grin, and then waited patiently for Felicity to order so that they could be alone and get back to their conversation.

Before that had even happened, Harry noticed something that he hadn't their previous two meetings, maybe because she needed the severe bags under her eyes that the nearly sleepless night had given her before it would reach Harry's recognition level. He stared at her face deeply, utterly confused that he hadn't noticed it before, no matter what excuse he gave himself. He had seen pictures and memories of his godfather, after all, and he hadn't looked like a sleep deprived shade of himself in those, like he generally did when Harry knew him.

The recognition had caused a small smile to creep onto Harry's face. He didn't realize he was staring for a couple of minutes and shook himself when he finally did. "You really do look rather a lot like him in the face," Harry said, smile growing as he explained to the Hufflepuff why he had been staring. He was sure she would be wondering after all. Harry was generally the object of the staring, not the person doing it.

Felicity felt comfortable in Harry’s presence, which seemed natural after speaking to both their dads all night. Why wouldn’t she feel comfortable with the boy who should be her natural best friend? She grinned as Harry admitted to not having slept much either, then let out a yawn before collecting herself to give the waitress her order. ”I believe I’ll have the same,” she said with a smile, tempted to take out her coins right then but deciding to wait until they’d finished their meal and conversation to try and pay for herself.

The idea of being treated differently because of being famous, and for being famous for such a terrible reason as being targeted by the darkest wizard known to man was somewhat disturbing to the blonde, but she didn’t say anything as she tilted her head at the boy before her. He was staring at her in such a peculiar way that she couldn’t help but stare back.

His smile made her happy, though she still wondered just what he was seeing while looking at her. She was about to ask, but then Harry seemed to shake himself out of a daze and began to speak. His words made her smile grow even wider. ”Really? Oh, Harry, do you mean it?” she asked softly. ”Oh, I wish I could see him. Hear his voice…” she trailed, ,wondering if Harry might have any photos of her now deceased father. The only ones she’d ever seen were school pictures from way back when and those terrible images from the Daily Prophet when they were searching for the falsely accused murderer.

”Please tell me about him, Harry. You spent at least a little bit of time with him. What was it like? What did you do? What were his favorite things and what did he hate? I want to know everything about him.” I want to know if I’m like him at all. Her silent thought weighed a bit heavy on her heart as she willed the Gryffindor to tell her about the father she’d never met.

Harry wondered if there was a way that he could show Felicity his godfather’s face and allow her to hear the man’s voice. He had a few pictures in the album that Hagrid had given him years ago, but not many. Padfoot didn’t seem to have been the kind of bother with picture taking. He could try the method Hagrid used to make Harry’s album, but the chances that all of their friends besides maybe Lupin had destroyed his godfather’s picture, thinking him a vile murderer, was pretty high in Harry’s opinion.

For maybe the thousandth time Harry cursed the fact that Sirius hadn’t had his two way mirror on him when he fell through the veil. The dark haired boy was still convinced that that would have made all the difference. Instead he was sitting here trying to figure out a way. “Maybe someone with a Pensive has a memory of Sirius they’ll let you watch,” he said musingly. “Just so you can hear his voice once, you know?”

Once again, he had to think before answering a question. That almost seemed to be standard practice with Felicity already. It also seemed to be a given that she was going to ask him to do something that he found exceptionally hard and would not even attempt doing for anyone else right now. Still, once their food was set in front of them, he took a single bite to test the temperature and then plowed into story time.

“Mostly we made his house livable again, since his mom died shortly after he went to Azkaban and then it stood empty until last year.” That was sure a cheerful thought. “He hated that, hated living alone most of the year, and most of all hated the giant portrait of his mother that hung in a prominent position in his entry hall and yelled at anyone it didn’t like. He was still the most joyful man I’ve ever known when anything good happened, though.”

Harry got a little bit lost in thought again. The house that he was thinking of belonged solely to him, Padfoot’s godson, not the man’s daughter, and Sirius was not the kind to disown or leave someone out for being a girl. He wasn’t that kind of old money Pureblood. “He really had no idea you existed,” he whispered to himself in awe.

As the food showed up, Felicity smiled and took a bite as Harry did, savoring the flavor. She continued eating as the boy spoke to her, devoting her attention to the younger male who she was now sure she could call her friend. It was interesting to think of this house that had stood empty for so many years, and she felt somewhat bad for not being there to help with the clean-up. He was her father. She should have been there to assist in making his old house a home.

Felicity found herself smiling around her food at the idea of him being such a happy man. It was what she had hoped for him. Simply knowing that a boy like this, along with his friends, had made her father know that he was a good man… it made her heart soar. If her dad had died thinking the whole world thought him a murderer, especially of his best friends, she wouldn’t have been able to remain in the magical society.

She nearly choked on her latest bite of food when Harry’s whispered words reached her ears. The blonde coughed, fork clattering to her plate as she covered her mouth and held her chest against the choking sensation and the sob that threatened to tear from her chest. It was true. Her dad never knew about her. Mum had made sure of that. The simple fact was so hard for her to hear that she could barely keep from crying as her eyes watered with her lack of air.

”No, mum never let him know,” she finally croaked, still coughing a bit as she wheezed for oxygen. Felicity made a mental note to avoid inhaling Shepard’s pie, knocked her fist into her chest a couple more times, then cleared her throat and offered a watery smile to her companion. ”Sorry. Um… do you know anyone with a pensieve?” The Hufflepuff had an idea, but she didn’t have a pensieve of her own. She’d learned how to extract memories from one of her magical medical books. Maybe if they found one, Harry would be willing to allow her to delve into his memories of the man who made her. After all, he probably had the best memories with him.

Harry’s reverie was utterly broken when he realized that Felicity had been able to hear him. He was shocked that she didn’t throw her drink his face or something. That had been a rather insulting little musing when taken at face value. “I didn’t mean to offend-“ he started, but cut himself off quickly at her actual response. Apparently the Hufflepuff understood the situation much better than Harry did, and was completely understanding of his gaffe as a result.

Still, the information raised a whole new wave of things that Harry needed to consider, and he accidentally sank into his thoughts again, absentmindedly eating his lunch as he turned some of them over in his mind. Just because Sirius didn’t know about his daughter didn’t mean she shouldn’t be taken care of. He had all the combined gold and treasures of the substantial Potter and Black vaults. Meanwhile, Felicity had grown up in a single parent home with no extra support that he knew of, and her mother had probably still been a teenager when the now Hufflepuff was born. Based on what he knew from Aunt Petunia and muggle television, single parents kids were to be pitied and helped at best of times, and Harry doubted Felicity had known much of those. He would have to find a way to take care of her, preferably without endangering either her mother’s pride or her own.

He had to pull himself back to reality to realize that he had half missed a question. “I don’t even know for sure that any Pensieve’s exist besides the one in Dumbledore’s office.” He shuddered involuntarily at his own mention of the Headmaster. “And I don’t know many people who remember your dad when he was at his best, honestly.”

He lapsed back into awkward silence, finishing his lunch entirely as well as his current butterbeer while he tried to get up the nerve to begin asking difficult questions of his own. “Not to be especially rude or forward,” he began, an apologetic smile already on his face, “but what is your life at home like, Felicity?”

It seemed Harry wasn’t used to people not easily taking offense to the things he said. Felicity didn’t exactly know why she would take offense to his pointing out that her father hadn’t known of her existence. She’d known that to be true, after all. It was actually more of a comfort, since it explained why she never knew him. Had he known about her and simply avoided her, that would have hurt much worse than his not having a chance to ever be near her. At least this way she could pretend he would have tried his best to spend all the time he could with her, even if he wouldn’t have.

Given the way Harry spoke about the man, however, the Hufflepuff had to think he would have done his best to be a dad to her despite all the odds stacked against him. Sirius sounded like a great, if flawed, man. And who didn’t have flaws?

She smiled at him and continued to eat as he seemed lost in thought, then muttered something about Professor Dumbledore having a pensieve. It seemed Harry didn’t think much of this, but Felicity practically felt her brain working on a plan. It would take a bit of extensive thought, however, and so she kept the whole thing to herself for now. It wouldn’t do to get Harry all worked up when she didn’t even have a complete idea yet.

His question about her home life, and the ever-ready apology seemingly waiting on his lips, had her taken aback. Why was this boy asking her about her life with her mum? Why did he care? No one seemed particularly worried about how the two women got on at any other point in her life, except maybe mum’s boss, and he always cared about the two of them. So why was the bespectacled boy suddenly interested?

Not one to assume anything bad about another, Felicity shrugged her shoulders and cleared her mouth and throat with a quick swig of her drink. ”It’s life? I mean, It’s just like it’s always been, I guess. Me and mum, our little apartment above the rundown quill shop down the alley here. I could… um… take you there if you want? Mum is off today to spend time with me while I’m here. It’s kind of a tradition of ours. Every Hogsmeade weekend she gets the day off and works the night instead so we can get some sweets and catch up. She… I mean, I know she’d love to meet you.” She was afraid in some ways to even show Harry where she lived, had grown up. She knew it was a meager dwelling, but she was also damned proud of it. She and her mother had worked hard to keep their home, and it was what they could manage, so it was what they had.

She also knew it might be unfair to ask Harry to meet the woman who had loved his godfather so long ago, but she did so want the two to meet. Two people she respected meeting would make Felicity oddly pleased for some reason. ”Mum doesn’t really get visitors, so it would really make her day to have one,” she mused aloud, then looked at the Gryffindor with wide, apologetic eyes. ”Not to pressure you or anything. You can totally say no. It’s really not a problem!”

That was not exactly what Harry expected or wanted. While going and meeting Felicity's mum and seeing her place himself would make it easier to judge how much help he could give them from Sirius's money and connections or from his own, this was quickly turning into too much too soon. Still, the idea that it was so close meant that it would be easy for him to deal with, hopefully once things slowed down a little bit.

"Another time," he said politely. "I need to prepare myself before I run off and meet anyone connected to...him. I'm sure you noticed how I've been with you so far this year. I promise I'll go over there with you soon, though."

Harry took a few steadying breaths, trying to keep things under control. It was probably time for him to go before he did something to embarrass himself. There was just one thing that he needed to do before he could get out of here.

"I've sadly got other stuff that I need to do," he lied calmly, if a little tiredly. "If I could just get the map back from you, I'll be on my way. "I'm sure we'll see each other again very soon, though." He threw a little bit of gold on the table to cover lunch for once they were gone and then waited for his third most prized possession so that he could get back to the business of everything he routinely had to use it for around the school.

A little sad, yet understanding, Felicity smiled at the messy-haired boy and nodded her head in affirmation. ”I suppose I should prepare mum for a meeting anyway,” she grinned, imagining how shocked the woman would be if Harry were to simply walk in with Felicity without warning. ”If you do ever want to talk about him though… you know, to think about him as the happy-go-lucky boy he once was, I’m sure mum would love to share some stories.”

Felicity wasn’t sure what he would think of this, but she thought it would be a nice offer. Her mum had to have a lot of good memories of Sirius before any of the fear and stress really set in for him. Come to think of it, she might just ask the woman about some of those stories when she saw her today. ”Of course! I mean, um… I’ll give you back the map on one condition.” Her lips had curled into a smirk as the idea came to her. She was determined to pay for her own lunch, and this was her chance. ”You take back some of those coins and let me cover my own meal. I’m no charity case, and it isn’t like this was a date…”

She blushed at the words, not having realized how much she actually wished it would have been labeled as such. Awkwardly, the blonde cleared her throat and dug some coins out of her purse, sliding them gently onto the table. She stood up and offered Harry the map, her cheeks still tinted pink. ”I hope you hold true to that, Harry. I rather look forward to seeing you again soon…”

Harry hadn't thought about that. Felicity's mum would have to have known Sirius in school or immediately after, and Harry knew very few people who could say that. He had a feeling that once the pain had faded into the background some that would be a meeting and hopefully a relationship that he would cherish.

He also hadn't planned for conditions and talk of dates. Confused and a little bit flustered, Harry stood and pulled about half of the coins he had tried to pay with back. Once they were back in his money bag, he reached for the offered map, taking a step closer to Felicity than he strictly had to as he did so.

"Bye then," he said, kissing her on the cheek before making his way out of the pub. In his distraction over Padfoot and money and everything else he didn't even notice that the cheek he kissed was flushed almost to red. After all, Felicity was basically his sister, and that was how you treated a sister when the two of you were getting on well, especially when one of you was having a rough go of it. There was certainly a rough enough go of it to start the school year for Felicity and Harry.