A/N: All the characters contained here-in belong to Ms. Rowling
Harry stepped slowly into the room, and felt his jaw drop. He had never seen anything like this in his life. The room was huge. It was divided into a sleeping area, which was dominated by a massive wooden sleigh bed, and a living area. A large, red sectional sofa, covered with plump gold pillows, sat in the living area. The couch faced long floor to ceiling windows which looked out onto a... tropical beach?
"How... " Harry began looking at the windows.
"They've been enchanted. You can change the scene," Lupin said. He demonstrated by showing Harry, in quick succession, the Hogwarts grounds, a city skyline, and a beautiful starlit night, before changing it back to the beach scene.
Harry nodded his understanding, continuing his perusal of the room. A game table with four comfortable chairs stood in one corner. A shelf, piled with various magical games, was against a wall nearby. Turning back to the sleeping area, Harry saw a large mural was painted over the bed. A stag, a large black dog, and a wolf frolicked through a moonlit forest.
"Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs," Harry murmured smiling sadly. "I can't believe he did all this for me." He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Remus looking at him.
"He loved you Harry. He wanted you to have a place of your own. Sirius knew you'd never had that growing up with the Dursleys. I think not being there for you was the one great regret of his life."
Harry nodded, too emotional to speak.
"There's one more thing if you're up to it Harry," Lupin said. Upon seeing Harry's nod, Remus walked over to a door he had not noticed earlier.
"How would you feel about a game of quidditch Harry?"
"Yeah, like they are going to let me out for that Remus," Harry snorted.
"Just concentrate on quidditch Harry, and then open the door," Remus ordered. Harry did as Lupin asked, suddenly supicious.
He opened the door and peeked in. A small, but well built indoor quidditch pitch met his gaze.
"He built me a quidditch pitch?" Harry boggled.
"Not exactly Harry. He built you your own room of requirement. He got the idea when he heard about the DA classes you were holding. It took us over a month to get this right, complicated bit of spell work. This used to be a closet."
Harry was at a complete loss for words. He stood there opening and closing his mouth, trying to wrap his mind around the magnitude of Sirius' gift to him. Finally he raised his eyes to Remus, a mischievious twinkle sparkling in their emerald depths.
"We are going to absolutely flatten Slytherin this year," he grinned.
"You truly are James Potter's son," said Lupin laughing. Just then they heard voices in the hallway.
"Harry?" Hermione's called, entering the room followed by Ginny and Ron. "There you are. We've been looking all over for you and.... HOLY CRICKETS! What is this place Harry?"
"My room," said Harry grinning. He proceded to eagerly show them, demonstrating both the windows and the room of requirement. Predictably, Hermione was impressed by the spellwork which went into them. Just as predictably, Ron was thrilled at the prospect of having unlimited access to a quidditch pitch all summer.
"Oh my gosh!" Ginny exclaimed after a few minutes. "We almost forgot. Mum sent us looking for you. It's lunchtime."
Not wishing to incur the wrath of Mrs. Weasley, the four friends and Lupin hurried down the hall and descended the steps. They were most of the way down when they heard it.
"Filthy blood traitor, giving away Mistress' house to the Dark Lord's enemy. Kreacher took care of him though, and Kreacher will deal with the rest of them too. Mudbloods, half-breeds, and blood traitors!"
White hot rage, like none he had ever felt before, filled Harry. His face contorted in absolute fury. He practically dove down the remaining steps, tackling Kreacher and wrapping his hands around his throat.
"Took care of Sirius did you?" Harry snarled. "You betrayed your master! Unfortunately for you, I'm your master now Kreacher, and I will NOT give you the opportunity to do the same to me!"
Harry's hands tightened on Kreacher's throat, cutting off his air supply. The elf's eyes bulged, as if they would pop out of his head. Harry was dimly aware of Hermione shouting that Kreacher was out of his head and didn't know what he was saying. He felt Ron and Ginny trying desperately to seperate him from the elf, but Harry didn't care. He tightened his fingers more. Finally, he heard Remus' voice cry out, and felt a spell hit him. He faded into blackness.
Harry came to painfully, his head throbbing. He sat up quickly as both awareness and memory flooded him. Waves of nausea and dizziness hit, but he refused to give in to them. Looking around he realized that he was in his room, in bed. He could see blurry figures standing nearby. Harry rubbed his head trying to relieve the pain and bring his eyes into focus.
"Lie back Harry. The pain will go away in a second. I had to to stupefy you," he heard Remus say and felt his glasses being pressed into his hands.
Putting them on, he looked around the room again. Remus was sitting at the foot of his bed, his face filled with concern. In one of the chairs from the game table, which had been moved over to the bed, sat Professor Dumbledore, his normally sparkling blue eyes very grave. Standing near Dumbledore, with a suprisingly fierce look on his face, was Dobby the house elf.
"Where is he?" Harry gritted out as his anger once again flared. "Why the hell was he still in Sirius' house... my house?"
"Calm down Harry... " Lupin began.
"Calm down?" Harry yelled. "It's HIS fault Sirius is dead Remus. He plotted with Malfiy and Voldemort to lure me to the Department of Mysteries. He lied to me when I tried to contact Sirius. None of it would've ever happened if it weren't for him. He deserves to be punished!"
"Harry, no one is arguing with that. We'd been looking for him since Sirius died. He disappeared when I...um...removed Mrs. Black," Lupin said, flushing guiltily as he remembered just how he had removed her."
"We believe Harry that he returned because, with the reading of Sirius' will, he is now bound to you. He had no choice," said Dumbledore speaking for the first time. "As for punishment..." Dumbledore motioned Dobby forward.
"Harry Potter sir, Dobby is very sorry you is losing your Sirius." Dobby's eyes took on an unaccustomed ferocity. "Kreacher is a bad elf Harry Potter. He will be punished. A council has been called sir."
"A council?" Harry asked.
"Yes Harry. The Elders' Council of the house-elfs will meet and decide Kreacher's fate," Dumbledore answered.
"I don't want him here, ever again," Harry murmured, looking down at his hands as he strove to get control of his raging emotions.
"He will not return Harry Potter sir. The punishment for causing the death of your master," Dobby shivered. "He will not be back."
Harry closed his eyes and nodded.
"Harry?" Dumbledore queried.
"Yes Headmaster?"
"After today's incident, I feel we need to begin your occlumency training once again. Remus and I will work on that together with you. It will not only help you to close your mind, it will help you to control your emotions. You will also begin practicing some battle tactics with Moody and Tonks. There will be additional lessons once school starts, but we will discuss that later. We will leave you now Harry. Try to get some rest."
Dumbledore rose, as did Lupin and Dobby.
"Remus? Can you stay for a little while?" Harry asked.
Remus nodded and sat back down as Dumbledore and Dobby left the room. Remus was looking intently at Harry, watching the play of emotions across his face.
"Everyone probably thinks I'm a real nutter now," Harry said.
"No Harry, of course they don't. They are very, very concerned though. As am I."
"It's all just... too much sometimes. I get so angry, and I lash out without meaning to. I mean, I know I have been short with everyone, but I never thought I could... "
Harry's voice trailed off and he looked down at his hands. In his heart he knew, if Remus had not stopped him he very easily coukld have killed Kreacher in his blind rage. Tears sparkled in his eyes as he realized what he had almost done. He turned his head in an attempt to hide his guilty face.
"Harry, you have been through more in the last 15 years than most people go through in a lifetime... in 10 lifetimes. You are stretched to the breaking point, and you keep so much of it inside. Of course it's too much sometimes," Remus said looking up at the mural over the bed.
"Sometimes, after I was bitten, I would get angry too. As young as I was, I knew my life would never be the same as other people's, and I was so mad at the injustice of it all. I didn't think I could tell anyone because they would turn away, so I kept it all in. It got worse once I started school. I'd see your Dad, Sirius, and Peter and they seemed so carefree. They could play quidditch and have girlfriends and do all the things normal kids do. They had no concept of what I was dealing with, and of course I was not about to tell them. I thought that, if they knew I would lose them, if they knew they would leave. I got into these horrible black moods that I'd take out on whoever happened by."
"How did you deal with it Remus?" Harry asked.
"It was your dad Harry," Lupin said smiling. "We had skipped out of History of Magic one day and were down by the lake. Sirius was talking about the latest prank he was planning.
I realized he was going to do it on a full moon night and I snapped at him. I guess your dad had had it with me. He told me that I was being 'a great bloody git' and I needed to quit feeling sorry for myself. I yelled at him, told him that he had no idea what I was dealing with. That's when he told me that they knew. They had known for six months, and maybe, if I'd quit brooding and talk about it I'd feel better, so I did. While I can't say that it has always worked, for the most part he was right." He looked up, suprised with his own openness.
Harry looked down again and nervously rubbed his scar.
"I should tell them what's happening shouldn't I? I should tell them about the prophecy."
"That's a decision only you can make Harry, and only when you are ready," Lupin replied.
Harry lost himself in his thoughts for a while. Slowly he looked up, green eyes meeting grey.
"I'm ready," he said simply.
A/N: Thanks for reading. I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Please review.