Harry quickly stuffed the locket into his pocket and continued cleaning, his heart thumping a mile a minute, hoping beyond hope no one had noticed what he had done.

Though that hope was quickly betrayed.

“Any reason you’re nicking things like Kreacher?” asked a voice softly beside his ear.

Harry almost jumped in fright and mechanically turned his head around to see Sirius gazing at him.

Harry wanted to make an excuse, but try as he might, he couldn’t think of anything. Eventually, he sighed. “There’s a reason I took this locket, one that I can’t really talk about right now,” said Harry, rather guiltily.

“Don’t trust me enough, eh?” asked Sirius with narrowed eyes.

Harry quickly shook his head. “It’s nothing like that, Sirius. I trust you with my life,” said Harry. “I was actually planning on having a chat with you about this. There are a few things you should know, things I didn’t mention the other day in front of the others. Can we talk about it tonight?”

Sirius chuckled, “Sure, after everyone goes to bed, why don’t you meet me in Buckbeak’s room? No one likes to go in there but me.”

“Sounds like a deal!” said Harry, happily.

“Finally, something to get away from this boredom,” grinned Sirius.

Harry laughed as well. “Actually, once this all is over, there are a few things I want to do that you might find interesting.”

“Oh? And what might that be?” Sirius asked curiously.

“Now, now, that would ruin the surprise. But it would live up to the legends of the marauders,” said Harry with a laugh.

Sirius suddenly looked at Harry with mock seriousness. “I’m going to take that as a challenge, you know?”

“That would just make this more fun,” said Harry with a grin.

Sirius started laughing loudly at that. “You really are more and more like your father”

While the two chatted, they didn’t notice a calamity approaching them. A calamity that soon reared its red-headed head.

“Are you two just going to keep talking, or will you actually get any work done?” bellowed Mrs Weasley from across the room. “There is too much to do for you to be standing around joking with each other!”

Both Sirius and Harry jumped, quickly scampering away to their respective tasks. The rest of the group couldn’t help but laugh, earning themselves a glare from Mrs Weasley.

Eventually, they finished cleaning for the day. It was evening already and having had a very simple lunch, everyone was famished. They gathered for dinner, which went as usual - noisily.

Harry and Sirius continued their conversation from earlier. Harry mentioned how Lily already knew a lot of things already, so he would like to include her in their meeting, which, of course, earned Harry a bout of teasing from Sirius.

Harry also said he would bring Hermione along with him, since he wanted her to know what was going on as well.

“Not Ron?” Asked Sirius.

“Ron…” started Harry, but he hesitated on how to continue.

“Things seem weird between the two of you,” stated Sirius. “Any reason?”

“Things have been fairly awkward ever since he pulled his usual crap,” replied Harry with displeasure. “He was pretty rude to Lily when he first met her and then he got all jealous when he found out we were dating.”

Harry heaved a sigh. “I don’t know. I don’t feel like telling him about the stuff happening to me. He would act more jealous and do stupid things.

“Fair enough,” said Sirius, “do whatever you feel is right.”

They then decided that they should meet after dinner once everyone had headed to bed.

Dinner ended rather smoothly and afterwards, Harry pulled Lily and Hermione aside as they were heading upstairs and told them to meet him in Buckbeak’s room once everyone fell asleep. They seemed curious, but when he told them he would explain everything there, they agreed and headed to their rooms.

Harry made his way to his bedroom. Ron dove into his bed after feeding Pigwidgeon, leaving Harry sitting on his bed with Hedwig on his lap, petting her.

Harry waited for Ron to fall asleep, enjoying his time with Hedwig until eventually he heard a loud snore from the bed next to him.

He quickly picked up his invisibility cloak, donned it and made his way to the room Sirius had mentioned earlier.

He opened the door as quietly as possible and walked in to find Sirius and Buckbeak staring at the door. Sirius with a look of vigilance and Buckbeak, one of innocent curiosity.

Harry quickly closed the door behind himself and took the cloak off.

“I forgot you had this cloak,” said Sirius in relief. “Almost scared myself silly there.”

Harry chuckled and looked towards Buckbeak. The hippogriff was gazing at him. Harry was just about to walk towards Buckbeak and do the ritualistic bow to get Buckbeak’s permission to touch him when the Hippogriff quickly stood up and kneeled. Not the short kneel it usually did as permission, but a deep reverential bow.

“I’ve never known a hippogriff to drop its pride and be the first one to kneel,” said Sirius in wonder.

Harry, surprised though he was, made his way towards the Hippogriff and ran a hand over his head and beak.

Buckbeak stood back up and nuzzled into his neck. Something else that was unexpected.

“Did the two of you go through something that I don’t know about?” asked Sirius.

“Not that I know of,” replied Harry. “Maybe he just likes me?”

“Could be, possibly-” said Sirius, trailing off, lost in thought.

There was a soft knock on the door.

Harry opened it up to see Lily and Hermione. He ushered them in and after making sure no one was around, he shut the door and placed a silencing charm on it.

Harry sat down next to Buckbeak and leaned on his body while the others settled down around the room.

“What’s going on Harry?” Asked Hermione.

“So, there are a few things I wanted to share with you guys,” said Harry, “especially about what happened out in the hall earlier.”

Harry glanced at all of them and noticed they were watching him seriously.

“Back then, I mentioned I didn’t know where I got these powers from or what all I can do, but that was a lie. I know exactly where I got those powers from and I know exactly what i can do,” said Harry.

All three of them were staring at Harry. Sirius had a frown on his face while Hermione just looked surprised. Lily seemed to have realised something, though.

“Lily was there when it happened, so she probably already knows, but I had an… incident with Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix,” said Harry.

“What kind of incident?” Asked Hermione.

“Lily and I were out when Fawkes suddenly appeared in front of us. He seemed hurt and since I recognized him, I went to check up on him. But, the moment I touched him, he turned into a ball of fire and went into me,” said Harry amidst a pair of shocked gasps, “Lily said I passed out for over a day. For me, though, it was a unique situation.”

The group watched Harry with bated breath, even Lily. This was the first she would hear about what he had been through.

“I ended up in this space that looked like King’s Cross Station and I met Voldemort,” said Harry.

Sirius jumped to his feet while Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth in horror. Lily moved next to Harry and grabbed his hand.

Harry smiled at her and continued.

“When Voldemort attacked me and had his power rebound on him, a part of his soul broke off and attached itself to me. Which is where I get my parseltongue ability. I fought him there and defeated him, so that soul shard is no issue. The problem came after,” he said, “after he died, some green light shot out of him and went into me. I don’t know what it was but the next thing I know, I’m watching Voldemort’s memories. I watched his entire life. All the heinous things he has done. I had to sit through every single one of his murders and evil acts.”

“Oh Harry,” said Hermione, tears in her eyes.

“Anyway, from Voldemort’s memories, I learned how to cut myself off from the trace so I could do magic without the Ministry finding out. I did the same for Lily and cut her off from it. I can do the same for Hermione too. I learnt a bunch of other useful skills from that too though,” he said, “After that, I woke up and the whole Dementors event happened. The major stuff happened after. I met Fawkes in a similar space after I fell asleep. He showed me the kinds of powers I have.”

“What kind?” Gulped Sirius.

“I can basically use phoenix fire, which is as, if not more, destructive as fiendfyre. I can use phoenix fire to heal as well. Not to mention, I can use a kind of phoenix fire that has a trace of consciousness, so I can give it orders and have it follow them. It can send information back to me as well,” said Harry.

All three of them gasped, “you have to be joking,” said Hermione.

Harry smiled and created a ball of teal flames and, moments later, the ball of flames changed into the shape of a small bird and started flying around. The bird flew around the room, swooped down and brushed past Hermione, who squealed in surprise. Lily giggled and stretched her arm out for the bird to sit on it.

Sirius watched in wonder as the bird sat on her hand.

“Is it not hot?” He asked.

“Nope, it’s actually kind of cool to touch and a little soft,” said Lily and stroked the bird’s back.

Harry watched the three play with the bird for a while, then he turned serious.

“I told you all this because I trust all three of you the most, so I wanted to be completely honest with you guys,” he said.

“What about Ron…?” Asked Hermione hesitantly.

Harry looked down for a bit and just as the silence was feeling a little awkward, he spoke.

“Ron… is always jealous, Hermione,” he started, “I don’t even want to go through the situation where he finds out about this and acts even more jealous. You saw how he acted when he found out I’m dating Lily. This isn’t even the first time he’s pulled stuff like this. It’s a common feature for him.”

Hermione looked a little sad, but nodded.

“I think I understand your powers now, but what’s next, Harry?” Asked Sirius.

“Next, I need to go through that hearing, so I know whether I’ll still need to go to school or not. But before that, I need to tell you guys about Voldemort’s weakness. His horcruxes.”