"And when you say that, you say it with a smile because they were silly things in a way," Harry said. "It's how it should be for everyone, but it's not always the case. Also Mr. Potter means that some reporter is trying to figure out how to screw me over on the next article and wants a quote to misrepresent." He wouldn't even mind one at the moment.
"It's not just your reputation, though. You had a normal school year. In three years, Dad managed to get engaged, get married, get Mum pregnant, have a child and hid for months and months. That's a pretty normal life, no matter how screwed up you think it was." He shook his head. "Again I'm not making light of what you went through. War is never pretty, but the difference is that I know nothing else." He smiled a little. "When Dumbledore died, the Order was left alone. McGonagall tried to keep people in check, but everyone was doing his or her thing. There wasn't someone to tell them anymore, and you know what happened? Nothing. It was more chaos than anything else, until I went in at seventeen and told people what to do. You always need someone on top in moments of crises and no one has taken that step, so I have. Don't think I like it. I'm the one who likes to go in alone and do what he thinks his right and ignore the rest, but I've worked long enough at the Ministry to know that it tends to backfire."
Looking back there had been so much wrong with Remus' relationship with Tonks, but Harry hadn't interfered until Tonks got pregnant. "I might have told him what to do too when it came to Teddy. Sweet Merlin, he let a seventeen year old tell him off about having a kid. You're here arguing with me that maybe I should step back. Maybe he lost that backbone somewhere along the way." He stared at the sky for a while before he spoke again. "Hermione, she's the one that plays Devil's advocate. She's the most loyal person I've ever met, but she will argue with me. Ron- I love him and he'll back me up in a second, but he can be as impulsive as I am. I might need an Hermione right now, because despite what you say, with the people in play here and my reputation internationally, I think this will happen for the short term."
Peter was something else differently. "You're right. I think he turned around the time I was born, or maybe a little later. All of a sudden so many people died or disappeared. Whatever happened, must have happened around my birth. I don't understand how you four could be so close and not see it." He tilted his head. "h, I'm pretty sure you encountered him. He turned you after all and after that, I think you met him as well, when you worked undercover." He nodded. "I knew that too and as I said not everyone trusts it but it's the one way to get financial help for the potion."