Flora spent some days in the hospital until the wound in her arm finally stopped bleeding. Hermione had stayed with her, since Felipe was at home with their children. Harry visited her every day. One day before Flora’s discharge from hospital, Hermione asked Harry to replace her for a few hours so that she could go home to her children who were on vacation. Flora and
Harry had not talked alone since she had been admitted in the hospital, as Hermione was always by her side:

“How are you?” Harry asked worried.

“Physically, I’m well. I just wanna go home. My arm seems healed now, though it hurts a little. But it hurts a lot less than here”. She showed her heart. He held her hand, and said:

“I’m very distressed about this situation. It’s heartbreaking. Really… I don’t know what to do.”

“There is nothing we can do.” She said trying desperately to hide her feelings from him as well as herself.

“I know. But I can’t get away from you.” He said slightly nervous.

“Don’t, anyway. Gradually the energy will get into something else. We’ll be like brother and sister, so...”

Flora smiled. Harry brushed his forehead, pulling his hair back, his eyes closed. He did not want to have this conversation so he changed the subject:

“In a way, we already are relatives.”

“What d’you mean?” The sudden change of subject took her by surprise.

“We have a common ancestor, Peverell. There is even a tale on the Peverell brothers, Hermione can tell you that. She's better at it than me.”

“I’ll ask her to tell me...” She commented, but that she would not have changed the subject, she felt confused, did not expect him to so easily accept the proposal to be just friends. In fact she did not want it, she had just wanted to be polite. At the same time she felt that she should respect his wishes. The conversation that took place then, got even more tense: “But it isn’t only my feeling for you that hurts me so much: what will become of me and my family?”

Harry took a deep breath. For a moment he had forgotten all she went through, so he went on:

“You’ve been found not guilty. I've managed to put in the Daily Prophet, a note, denying that you usually attacked defenceless Muggles... I don’t know to what extent this will put an end to the persecution of your family, but that's all I can do. Fortunately, at the moment I enjoy some respect.”

“I can imagine that ... Some every world’s respect. Thank you, Harry.” She was relieved by the answer. In fact, Hermione had told her it was okay, but Flora needed to hear that from Harry. . “Neville and Hannah’s baby is born? Is she okay?”

“Yes, she is. She’s well, and her mother too. Neville doesn’t stop saying that despite being his daughter, she’s so beautiful. He's right about both things, I guess.” He smiled, seemingly relieved too by change of the subject.

“What's her name?” Flora asked.

“Joanne, after Hannah’s mother. We all ended up doing this, giving our parents’ name to our kids.”

Flora did not reply.

“What happened in the Shrieking Shack…” He began to say.

“This is the name of that house? Like scream? How interesting ... While it is impossible to forget, it’ll soon be just a pleasant memory. Rest assured, if the house doesn’t scream, no one will ever know.”

“No , it doesn’t scream.” He smiled looking her with curiosity.

“Why this name then?”

“It's a long story.” He sighed.

“I think you have the time to tell me about that before I catch the next train.” Flora said smiling.

“Will you catch a train?” Harry shook his head.

Flora showed him her arm still fully covered by bandages, from which a small trickle of blood ran down.

“Oh, I see: we do have a lot of time as you aren’t going anywhere. I'm sort of numb, I can’t think straight anymore. It’s very difficult for me to stay here besides you, but I have won worse battles.” He grinned.

“I believe that being close to my parents was even worse.” She nodded.

“Actually, it was clear then against whom I had to fight ... By your side I fight against myself....It’s worse.” He said, raising his eyebrows and tightly smiling.

Harry took a deep breath, and looked her in the eyes. Flora bit her lips and raised her eyebrows, then taking a deep breath, she said:

“Harry, it all will be settled soon. Even the heart aches heal... You were gonna tell me about the screaming house.”

“Shrieking, Shrieking Shack. Well, the house was a hideout for my friend Remus Lupin during the full moon in his school days. Can’t remember if I told you this, he met my father at school and they became great friends. He was in fact a werewolf, so the house’s howling and shrieking came in fact from him. Sirius, Peter Pettigrew - also known as Wormtail, the traitor that gave my parents’ address to Voldemort - my father and him, the four of them, were great friends. Sirius, Wormtail, and my father, were animagi. They turned into animals to give company to Lupin as animals. It is very dangerous for a man to be with a werewolf. The house is connected to Hogwarts through a tunnel, whose entrance is under Whomping Willow. Few people know how to immobilize it in order to use the passage. Are you getting me? I know I look like Hermione when I'm talking on and on.”

“Sure ... Wow! I didn’t know that wizards could turn into animals.”

“Oh, they can. Not all of them, though. Professor McGonagall can become a cat, my father was a stag, Sirius was an all black big dog... It's been so long.”

So Harry amazed himself by excitedly telling her the several times he had seen his godfather in his version as a dog, Padfoot. Both had fun, thinking how life would be like with a tail to wag.