Chapter 1

disclaimer : i do not own anything that belongs to JKR

It was one of those sweltering hot summer days in London when the bell rang shrill and demanding at number four privet drive. Vernon Dursley a large beef sized neckless man got up from where he sat at the kitchen table with his wife and son, muttering irritably about salesmen and swore not to even open the door if anyone was trying to sell him worthless products.

His tiny eyes squinted through the peeping hole on the door when he saw a tall handsome man in his early thirties with neatly combed dark hair standing gracefully at his doorstep. The man looks too well dressed to be a salesman, Dursley decided as he eyed the other man's white button up shirt and fitting blue jeans.

But if it was a guest, then it was pretty rude of him to drop in without calling, maybe I should let him be and come again another time after proper intimation, he thought and just as he made up his mind he saw his dratted nephew's owl fly out and watched hotly as the stranger eyed the bird. Quickly he threw the door open and the other man looked away from the bird and smiled down at him.

"good morning you must be Mr. Vernon Dursley" he began politely "I'm sorry for not having called earlier but I'm your wife's childhood acquaintance and I've not had the chance to visit London in a longtime and now that I'm here, I felt obliged to visit" he said

Ha! A gentleman then, what a pleasant surprise, Dursley thought as he welcomed the man into the living room and offered him a seat. A rich man, there was no doubt about it and works abroad too, will surely be useful to have good connections, with these thoughts and assurances of cookies and a glass of juice he quickly hurried into the kitchen to describe the man to his wife.

Petunia Dursley, long necked, skeletal woman looked surprised. A young man? But she had never let herself be too friendly with boys in her younger days, it was always lily who hung out with a bunch of them, talking and laughing like she was one herself, she shuddered lightly remembering her sister and the boys she generally hung out with. The not so pleasant memories overcame her surprise at finding a male friend who had been close enough to track her here.

Her husband was still saying something about wealthy men and even a visit abroad when she sighed and decided to give up guessing who he might be. "go on petunia, greet him, I will get the cookies and juice and Dudley will bring it out like a little gentleman and you can proudly introduce him."

Dudley watched with raging curiosity as he saw his mother nod absentmindedly before walking out to meet the stranger. After a second to compose herself Petunia Evans Dursley stepped out into the living room, only to lose it again instantly. Of course she would recognize the man anywhere, despite the fact that she had not seen him in approximately in 15 years.

Sirius Black stood up when she entered and smiled – no change that – smirked at her. He was one of lily's dreadful friends from that school of hers and visited often during summers. To be honest, of all of lily's friends, it had always been Sirius that she could tolerate best for he was polite and gracious, at least in her presence.

'No wonder Vernon was so pleased' she thought, the man certainly knew how to be charming when he wanted to and always managed to get his way, the question was, what did he want?

"Petunia, it has been a while" Sirius said, evidently pleased at her reaction.

"Sirius" she replied, half as an explanation, half as a resigned sigh. Maybe it was the lack of overjoyed shrieks or maybe it was just plain curiosity but Vernon Dursley came into the room, nudging his son forward.

Sirius's gaze shifted to the fat boy with the tray and after a momentary gleam in those silvery eyes his expression turned into one of polite curiosity, as once again caught petunia's sight. "Your son tuney?" he asked.

"Yes, this is our son Dudley; he turned 14 only last week, a pity you didn't drop by then" Vernon said beaming. This man must know his wife well if he called her tuney, he thought.

"Ah! A pity indeed" Sirius said smiling at his host "but what of your other son? I heard you adopted your nephew?" he asked sounding deceptively innocent.

'Of course' petunia thought 'this had to be about the boy'

"We did no such thing, you must have heard wrong Mr.-?" she heard her husband say and saw the flash of anger in Sirius's eyes before he replied "Black, Sirius Black"

"Ah, yes Mr. Black, you probably heard some false rumors, we have only one son" he continued making petunia sigh. "Vernon, he knows my sister" she said.

"Who are you talking about dear?" her husband asked. Sometimes the man could be so stupid.

"Lily of course, I've been to the Evans's plenty of times" Sirius replied, his tone harder now though only petunia noticed. Beside her Vernon Dursley fumbled, he hadn't thought of that. "Oh, uh actually we try not to talk about her here" he stated, trying to avoid the topic.

Sirius rose an inquisitive eyebrow "you don't like to talk about your only sister?" he asked. Petunia could easily see the anger building up behind the calm but Vernon who still wanted to impress the other man did not want to be thought less of because of his own comment quickly tried to clear things up "its nothing like you think Mr. Black, you might not have known but lily made a very disrespectful marriage and-" he began

"Disrespectful?" Sirius asked his voice now dangerously calm. Petunia all but whimpered, Sirius had been James's best man and she knew the two had been like brothers and insulting him was not going to end well. But of course, Vernon who knew nothing about any of this continued obliviously "yes, a good for nothing unemployed man, and one such as yourself can obviously se what shame that puts the rest of us to" he said, trying to emphasize that he was the exact opposite.

"Unemployed you say?" Sirius asked coldly and this time Vernon noticed. Thinking the tone was a result of having such shameful relatives tried to make it clear that he hated them. " yes, yes a no account, good for nothing, lazy scrounger-" Vernon began making Sirius clench his hands 'they gave Harry a home when I couldn't, damn I'll never forgive myself for ending up in Azkaban, but I still owe them" he thought as he willed himself to not blast the man into pieced. When that did not work, he tried to remind himself that this man was not worth another trip to the hell hole.

He turned to petunia instead "so you let one small thing make you forget her very existence? I thought better of you than that" he said, his voice showing no inflection what so ever. Petunia instantly knew he was talking about her jealousy and before she could bring herself to say anything, her husband spoke again

"No, no Mr. Black" he said hastily "its just that lily and her husband got drunk and were later killed in a car crash, you can obviously see how thinking of that would hurt petunia" he said and put a massive arm around his wife as though consoling her.

"Of course, it must be extremely hard" Sirius said sarcastically before looking at her in the eye "magic or not, you will never be even half of lily" he said, his voice harsh as he drove the blade in at her weakest spot.

Vernon was gaping and Dudley looked confused but petunia paled as she tried desperately to look away from the grey eyes filled with loathing.

"I demand to know who you really are!" Vernon said suddenly very loudly and petunia was relieved to have those eyes averted from her though she was certain they would haunt her dreams for a long time to come.

"How slow are you? I'm a wizard, James is my best friend and lily is the sister I never had and I also happen to be Harry's godfather" he said his voice low as he continued "now I'll tell you this Dursley, if you open your mouth one more time while I'm here, you'll be seeing your life flash before eyes" his voice had Dudley scampering behind his father.

"Are you threa-" Vernon began when petunia cut in.

"Shut up Vernon!" she shrieked. He looked surprised but let his mouth shut with a click.

"Where is Harry?" Sirius asked, his voice slightly more composed.

"Upstairs, in his room" she replied slowly, still afraid

"Call him" was the instant command.

"That's enough! I expect you to leave my house this instant" Vernon said, some of his courage having returned.

"Let's see if its still standing when I'm done with it" Sirius muttered before turning back to petunia and saying "call him tuney" she tried to speak but the words refused to form and she looked helplessly at her husband.

"BOY I WANT YOU TO GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!" Vernon shouted and Sirius held his wand tightly, willing himself to calm down. "he has a name" Sirius hissed but before Vernon could decide whether to heed to the unspoken threat in the man's voice, they heard the sound of a knob being turned and a door being opened. Seconds later they heard Harry yell back as he stomped down the stairs

"IT'S NOT HEDWIG! SHE"S NOT EVEN HERE AND-" he broke of mid sentence when he saw a guest. Damn! He was done for, he thought, slowing on his way down.

Sirius relaxed visibly at the sight of his godson and smiled up at him. Harry frowned in return; he couldn't recognize the man but was positive he had seen him before. He started more carefully down the last flight of stairs, cursing himself fluently for leaving his wand upstairs when the man winked and stood up.

"Hey Harry!" Sirius said warmly and Harry's mouth fell open. The man before him looked young and handsome, with lustrous locks of slightly long dark hair replacing the previously filthy mats, his pale skin no longer waxy but gleaming softly and the skeletal frame he remembered was still slightly thin but definitely hinted chiseled muscles. The only thing that remained the way Harry knew them were the grey eyes that were still filled with indefinite warmth and love. Sirius was grinning, showing off his sparkly white teeth as he saw Harry take in his profile, remembering that his godson who did not know his love for vanity probably did not expect the first thing he would do once free to be brewing every potion there was to get back in form.

"si-sirius?" Harry asked, still quite unsure. This wasn't the godfather he knew, this was the man who had laughed at his parents wedding.

"yes" Sirius replied softly, his eyes too taking in Harry's now thinner profile and looking concerned. It took Harry a moment to kick start his brain but when he did, he began to panic.

"SIRIUS! You shouldn't be here! What are you doing? You could be seen! You could get caught! ARE YOU-"

"HARRY! Harry stop shouting and Calm down" Sirius said

"But you-" Harry tried to start when his godfather raised a hand to silence him.

"I suppose this explains why you haven't sent me 20 owls demanding to know what on earth was taking me so long and I can't believe I'm saying this but don't you read the prophet at all? Specially in times like this?" Sirius asked still smiling. Harry blinked, it wasn't his fault. He had only stopped buying the prophet after it started selling so much nonsense about him and he thought of saying as much but settled for a "I don't get the prophet."

"Pity, I've been on the front page for nearly a week" Sirius said coolly.

"What?" Harry asked looking slightly dazed making Sirius sigh.

"Harry I-" he started to say but Harry had managed to process what must have happened and he threw himself at his godfather. Sirius laughed and hugged him tighter.

"You're free! You're names been cleared! They caught Pettigrew" Harry declared happily.

"no, that rat is still out there somewhere, not that he's going to be living anywhere much longer but yeah my name's been cleared" Sirius replied as he let go of Harry and tousled his hair.

"I don't believe it! But how? I mean what? No when? And where have you been?" is that why you haven't written in a week? You could have told me! I was so worried but really WOW!" Harry blurted out, the words flying out of him in his excitement.

Sirius laughed again. "How about you get your things and I'll you on our way?" he asked. Harry froze. "WAIT! What? GO? As in I get tot move in with you? Really? I mean like stay with you? You're serious?"

"Always have been" Sirius replied laughing again. There's a nice ring to it, Harry decided

"We're really leaving? NOW?" Harry asked again

"As soon as you get your things" Sirius replied and Harry felt like he was flying. He gave his godfather another fleeting hug before skipping away upstairs.

A/N : uh I've done the best i could with the Dursleys, do you think its okay? do let me know and also, i'll update on alternate days...till then do R&R!