Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Harry Potter and the Ashes of Hope ❯ Chapter 25: Acceptance ( Chapter 25 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I do not own Harry Potter and I insist you read the note from Chapter 1.

Crackerjacknpez...- She is good, she is simply a mother protecting her family. And as to Harry finally coming out, like I said beats the hell out of me. I just write what he tells me.

RangerDragen...- Yepp he has to WANT to change back. But first he has to realize that what is holding him back...is himself. What it bothering Harry so much?

Frequency Queen....- Heh heh... be happy I am not doing a lemon for this. Evil grin.... I have been known to downright torture people when I start getting all in a kinky mood. I believe several of my regulars can vouch....Check out my Noodle Delights for example which is a Inuyasha one. I would recommend read the reviews first...all of em...

Morbious 20...- I sleep just when I get into a creative fit I can't help it

Chapter 25

Acceptance

Harry found himself talking with the werewolf woman Isabelle, mother of Alexandre alongside Fleur for hours. She had done something that had made Harry feel warm and loved inside so much that he was actually like a little kid around her.

She had simply accepted him as Harry.

No last name, no nickname either passed her lips. To her he was just Harry. It was something that made the youth feel free.

Idly enough and much to Harry's embarrassment, Fleur couldn't help but take a picture of him with her wand. It was a picture that years later, the blonde as well as many others of his friends and family would never let down. It was a picture of him acting like a typical 7 year old....when he was 23 trapped in a child's body.

What was he doing?

Lying on the floor doodling like any child would that late at night. It was something he had never done on his own or even voluntarily when he was a child before. And yet with Isabelle, all he wanted to do was be that child he never could be. In a way....

Harry was having the childhood he had never gotten before.

As he was showing her one of the more recent drawings he had finished, it was at that moment, that Remus as well as Alexandre and Henri came through the door. The Wolf leader looking puzzled for a moment, at the events surrounding his mother and the little boy on the floor. He watches as Remus receives an earlier drawing that Harry had completed with her aide.

Somehow the Wolf leader knows that despite the fact this boy is human....he may have just found himself a little brother, knowing his mother.

“Alexandre...Monsieur Lupin...” Isabelle stated with a smile as she stood up to greet them. “I hope you do not mind. But young Harry called to me.”

Both men puzzled at first, it is Alexandre who accepts it without question. Whirling down on the child in front of him, Harry finds himself swooped onto this dark haired man's shoulders. Remus watching this is about to comment against this when he notices Harry's eyes.

A light that he once had long ago...long before all this had ever started with his parents deaths....

It was dim at the moment, but it was there. Harry was getting back something that he had been taken from him long ago...his innocence.

“Come with me Monsieur Lupin....” Isabelle stated softly as she linked her arms within his own. “Come let Harry have some memories that he was denied ever experiencing before.”

“Call me Remus....” The brown haired man replied. Although battered and bruised, Remus smiled as he saw something that had not been seen in close to a dozen years. “How...”

“The way Remus Lupin...” Isabelle replied as they stepped outside, Remus turning to take a look to find Harry being tickled by the dangerous werewolf who had once again taken on a playful exterior with ease. Far different from the deadly man and creature that he truly was.. “You know of what I speak now I hope.”

“I understand it...but I....”

“How I shall put it then, Harry has told me of his life until now Monsieur Lupin. A life where he was expected to be something and not allowed to be what he wanted.” The woman answered with a kind and gentle gaze.

“All he had to do was tell us....”

“He has wanted to many a time Remus. But yet there is one thing that is a part of him that he can not let go. Nor does he wish to for it gives him his strength and his courage...”

“What is this that?

“His honor...” Isabelle replied with a kind smile. “He is much like how my Alexandre was when he was that age. When the event happened that I spoke to you about, Alexandre wanted so desperately to go after Greyback who had fled. But he did not...our people needed him. Needed him to help them heal and to gain strength again.”

Somehow, Remus understands what Isabelle is telling him and he starts to feel guilty for he to has placed part of his burden upon the youth.

“You may be partially responsible Lupin, but he does not blame you. He loves you very much with all his heart. Unlike many before, you believed in him. You were the quiet voice that got through and not the many screaming at him for something he did not want or do. For you see...you accepted him as it is the way.”

Realization now dawns upon him and now a slow understanding hits him as to why Harry had turned to him so many times and not Sirius or Dumbledore before that night.

It was because like Isabelle had stated, wolves listen and accept what has happened. They do not judge, they do not hate.

They simply accept what is said or done and move on.

Sometimes all a person needs to heal is to feel that sense of acceptance. That sense that someone is listening and nothing more. Nothing less....

“You have done more then I could do in a lifetime this one night....” Remus whispered.

“I have done nothing that had not already been begun by you Remus. But sometimes, I can tell you this much....sometimes life needs a woman's touch.” Isabelle chuckled merrily. “Now come, let us go back us inside, I do believe my son and our shared cub Harry will probably be demolishing your little cabin by now oui?”

Hearing now the laughter alongside the occasional crash and Fleur's yelling to be careful. Remus ran inside and narrowed his gaze on an older man and little boy who both had guilty looks on their faces. Looks that made Remus want to just join in the disaster at first because as much as he hated to admit it.

At that moment he was reminded of an event himself from the past. It was one where he had walked into their shared dorm room when he was younger and found James Potter and Sirius Black giving him those same looks Harry and Alexandre were giving him now.

The look of `he started it' as their entire room was demolished in their playful fight.

Instead of yelling at the guilty looking man and youth, Remus found himself laughing. Laughing as he hadn't done for real in almost 24 years.

Harry seeing his adoptive father of sorts like this found himself joining in moments later as had Alexandre and the others.

All this time, despite the damage done to this cabin in her family's land, Fleur notices something about Harry. Something that the youth may not realize until much later....

That in these past few moments, clothes that had fit him perfectly despite being made for a child, were now a few inches too short?

Putting off what she saw as to seeing things that weren't there, Fleur smiles and joins in the laughing never noticing the quiet celebration going on elsewhere by those who watch.

For it is often in playfulness, when a child sees someone they respect and wish to emulate with all their want and desire, that they grow and in more ways then one.

-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-

Harry grew....he does not realize it at the moment guys and gals. But he allowed himself to grow because he wanted to!So instead of trapped in the body of a seven thing more like an 8-9 year old.