Quick A/N:

This is an AU of the largest kind. All characters and most places are owned by J.K Rowling. Harry is mute and grew up state side, Snape isn't that big of a dick, Ron is much more independent, among others. The largest three are going to be that Harry is a Ravenclaw, Marvolo Slytherin and Tom Riddle are two different people, and the pairings are eventually going to be Severus/Harry, Sirius/Marvolo, Draco/? Luna/Blaise, and Ron/Hermione.

:Italian: - note, I don't speak Italian. I mostly use google translate.

"Talking"

:signing: - I will be writing most of what they say in full sentences. I am aware that usually people use shortcuts and such, but I don't actually know much sign besides the alphabet, thank you, and various foods.

Thinking/ Written text

::Parseltongue::

And now, I hope you enjoy my new creation!

~Fay~

Sirius Black is a happy man by design.

He loves making people laugh, either with him or at him, and he loves to laugh- again, either with someone or at himself. He doesn't get ahold of many people through out his day, besides the few he thinks can answer his questions and a few people in England that he was close to. His best friend, Remus, and Remus' wife and child, Nymphadora- or, Dora, as she goes by now that she's married- and Teddy, a spitfire that was giving his parents hell at five years old. Even then, he's always making sure that he has a laugh ready for them.

There is one day a year where he isn't laughing. One day that he allows himself to mourn exactly why he was gone all the time. Why in the four years since he was released from Azkaban he's only been home four times- this very day in fact.

He wakes up in his childhood home, disoriented. He isn't sure where he is until he hears a soft, hesitant voice calling his name from down the stairs. He throws a robe on and moves slowly to meet his friend on the stairs. Remus looks worried, and he should be. This is the one day that Sirius is so… well, serious, that he doesn't usually even flash a smile.

It was July 31st, his missing Godsons birthday. Harry would be 17 today.

Sirius had been in Azkaban when his Godson went missing. In fact, no one knew that he had gone missing in the wizarding world until he should have been in Hogwarts- by then, they found out, he had been missing for nearly six years, as the muggles he had been left with had died overseas while on a trip. It was quickly discovered that the muggles were abusive, to the point Harry had been Hospitalized several times. The only reason he had been able to go with them to America was because the woman that watched him was on vacation when they had to leave. Harry had been left in the hotel room they had rented, barricaded in the closet. The Dursleys, his relatives, were killed in a traffic accident in New York, and though it was obvious Harry had escaped the hotel room, he was quickly lost and hasn't been seen since.

When Harry should have been 12, Ginny Weasley and a former follower of Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew, terrorized the students at Hogwarts until Dumbledore found them in the chamber of secrets, dead, with signs that a basilisk had been there and was now loose in the forbidden forest somewhere. After that, Dumbledore finally got around to getting Sirius a trial. Besides telling him to fuck off, Sirius hasn't talked to the man since. HE had apparently expected Sirius to help in his renewed battle against Marvolo Slytherin, but besides making the wizarding world more responsible for the living conditions of muggle children born with magic and making sure more laws were passed in favor of creatures and keeping the wizarding world separate, Marvolo hasn't done anything since he came back from a trip out of the country for 10 years. Dumbledore, however, was convinced that this man was the leader of the Dark Sect from the war 19 years prior.

"Sirius, come on. Let's get you something to eat." Remus says wearily. Sirius doesn't reply, though he does let Remus steer him to a table with a simple broth and toast waiting for him. He eats in silence, pushing it around more than anything. After almost thirty minutes of thick, heavy silence Sirius clears his throat and looks up from his bowl.

"Did Marvolo say anything?"

"He's still looking. He says he has an idea about looking in the hospitals around the area, that if they locked him in a closet then he might have been injured. If someone found him, they might have taken him there."

"We've checked the hospitals." Sirius slumps further down in his chair. He hadn't expected much when he approached Marvolo Slytherin with Remus a few months ago. He actually expected to get laughed at and the door slammed in his face. Instead, he'd saw what Dumbledore dubbed 'the inner circle' drop everything and help find an abused child. Apparently, the media was only told he was missing. Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange had actually traveled to the hotel, getting any help they could there, and Narcissa Malfoy and Rabastan Lestrange had started going through old newspapers looking for anything on a kid Harry's age. Barty Crouch Jr was researching on this side of the sea, and Rudolphus was at the Ministry, now with Lucius, looking for clues there. Severus was working on a project that Marvolo hadn't wanted to be disturbed, but he was brewing a tracking potion that takes a few months to get brewed. Marvolo had insisted that Severus was the most affected but hadn't said why.

"We searched for Harry Potter. We didn't take into account that an abused kid running away from his thought to be alive guardians might have given a false name. He's looking for anything from Harry James, or James Evans, to represent his parents, to various characters in children shows around that time that Harry might have pulled a name from. Anything that even remotely smells like something Harry would use is being pulled and looked at. They've gone through about 20 children's files from two weeks surrounding the accident from seven different hospitals. It's a slow process because they have to go through Muggle legal channels, but they are hopeful. Sirius, this is more help, and hope, then we've had since Harry was 14 and you thought you had tracked him down in Alabama." Remus explains to his friend. There's a spark that wasn't there before in his eyes, but he looks weary like he doesn't believe that his godson will be found that way. And he might not, Remus reminds himself. Just because it's a new way of looking doesn't mean that he will be found.

"Do you have your letter sorted?" Remus asks softly into the silence. Sirius looks at him, wide-eyed, before standing and staggering before he bolts out the room.

Dumbledore had admitted after it was found that Harry was missing to have put up a ward on the child preventing any magical mail to get to him before he turned 17. He'd been fined heavily and was no longer a member of the ministry, but he was still the headmaster. To ward anyone's mail, child or not, was a criminal offense without their permission. Especially not for that long. The wards would fall when Harry turned 17.

"MOONY!" Sirius yelling in the distance has Remus sprinting towards the noise. He skids to a halt and backtracks to the study that Sirius had the house elf set up while he was out a few years ago to see Sirius in tears near the open window.

"Sirius! Are you okay?"

"The owl is gone!" Sirius exclaims, collapsing into a chair near the desk. Remus moves into the rooms slowly, sinking to his knees to clasp one of his friends' hands in his gently.

"It's okay, Siri. We can send on in a minute, I'm sure it just went to get the paper. We-"

"No! Last night, before I went to bed after I arrived. I tied the letter to an owl, and it refused to leave because it couldn't find him, but now…" Sirius breaks off on a choked sound, and it takes Remus a few seconds before he's squeezing his friends hand tightly.

"Now, it's gone. It wouldn't have left with a letter it couldn't deliver."

"It wouldn't have left with a letter it couldn't deliver. Harry's alive, Moony." Sirius gasps out, still crying, and Remus throws his arms around the man, a wave of shock hitting him.

He never told Sirius, but he had given up on Harry years ago. Before Sirius had gotten out of Azkaban. What child could live on the streets for that long? But now, with his letter gone…

"It might take awhile." Remus murmurs after a few minutes of the men composing themselves.

"What? What do you mean?" Sirius asks, sitting up and dislodging his friend from around him.

"He might still be in the states." here, Sirius blushes, and Remus raises a brow at the look.

"I, er, I wrote one before I left, too. I left it on an owl at the hotel I was booked into…" he trails off as he thinks and Remus laughs at him. After a moment more of sharing their relief, Remus pats his friends hand and releases him.

"Go get dressed, Sirius. We should tell Marvolo and the others." Remus suggests quietly. Sirius bolts from the room, and Remus takes the moment to kneel next to the fire and floo home.

"Dad!" a blur of wild, rainbow-colored hair races by with a bright smile and a wave before a door slams shut, making Remus wince. Sure enough, not a moment later he can hear his wife.

"Theodore Lupin you get back in here now! Your breakfast is not finished!" Dora, in the crimson robes made for Aurors and smart looking dress pants, was there with her hands on her hips and short hair a violent red. He clears his throat, gaining her attention, and she drops to the floor immediately, her hair flaring brightly before it settles on an electric blue.

"Morning love. You were gone before I woke up this morning," she says brightly. Remus grins back.

"Sorry dear. Sirius doesn't get out of bed easily on most days. It was a mellow morning. I wanted to tell you I might not make it for dinner like I planned with Sirius. We…" he swallows slightly, and in the silence, he hears a loud bang before there's a squeal of laughter and some rumblings from a voice much older than little Teddy. Remus and Dora didn't live far from the Burrow, and so they had plenty of babysitters, and Molly stole him at least two days a week for herself.

"Harry's alive. Sirius' owl left with a letter for him sometime this morning." he settles on. She gasps, hair going a startling white, before she squeals, much like her son does.

"Oh, Remus, this is amazing! Are you going to Marvolo?" she asks excitedly, and when she receives a nod she grins wider.

"Excellent! Tell my aunts hello for me. I have to get to work, Percy is here to pick up Teddy. I love you, be safe okay?" she tells him seriously.

"Of course. You too, Dora. Come home and I'll make dinner tomorrow, okay?" he offers, getting an easy agreement. He disconnects and stands up, stretching before he leaves the study. He can hear Sirius thudding around upstairs, and moves to meet him at the edge of the stairs as he races down.

"Let's go, Moony!" Sirius exits the house quickly and moves into an alley before he disappears with a pop, leaving an amused werewolf behind.

When Sirius reappears he is in a completely white room, with plush seats, a fireplace, a white, fluffy carpet, and a high vaulted ceiling. It was his cousins flooing room, the only place in Malfoy manor that he could apparate in and out of. As expected, Remus follows and they wait for a member of the family to come find them. They can't leave the room until then. A few minutes later the door is pushed open and a blond head peaks around the door. Shoulders deflate, and a huff is heard as Draco Malfoy strides into the room. His hair was longer than the last time the adults had seen him. obviously, he'd been growing it out in the last few months. His facial features were sharp, an odd contrast to the soft grey eyes and the quirky smile he gave when in the presence of family.

"I thought you were Theo and Blaise. We're going out for the day. Theo turns 17 tomorrow." He explains to the amused adults in the room.

"Ah, yes, did you get my present?" Sirius asks, remembering having sent a package to the boy for his birthday earlier in the year. The boy nods enthusiastically.

"Yeah! They really helped while I was doing my defense paper this summer, thanks. And there were some really interesting techniques in it for dueling too. Blaise and I started practicing once he turned 17." he agrees. Sirius was glad the old Black family tomes had helped the kid. And the fact that he was a black by blood and cherished the books was a good thing too.

"I'm glad it helped. If you find any problems, I did work as an Auror, I could help out."

"And just because I'm your defense teacher doesn't mean I can't help with the dueling, though I won't be helping with your homework," Remus adds in softly. Draco beams at this, but his attention is grabbed when the floo activates. Remus and Sirius leave the room, heading for Lucius' study. They're stopped again by a soft call of Sirius name, and he huffs in annoyance before wincing when he sees his two cousins coming at him from the other end of the hallway.

"If you're looking for Lucius or Marvolo, cousin, they're enjoying a late morning meal in the gazebo with Rabastan and Rudolphus. Bella and I were just headed that way." Narcissa reaches them first and Sirius offers her his arm, making her smile at him before sliding her arm in his. Bella does the same to an amused Remus before they turn and begin walking.

"How are you feeling today?" Narcissa asks hesitantly. Sirius takes a moment to answer.

"More hopeful than I have been in a long time." he finally murmurs. She gives him a surprised look he doesn't see, and when she looks at Remus he just gives a small smile.

"This should be interesting." Bellatrix muses as they reach the french doors leading outside. They walk towards the gazebo where small snippets of conversation can be heard, with laughter reaching them before they can actually see the four men sat at the table.

"Sirius! Remus, It's good to see you." Marvolos surprised call has everyone swiveling to see the two men approaching with the Ladies of the house on their arms. The brunette makes an aborted attempt to stand that Sirius waves off.

"Eat first." he insists as he helps his cousin into her chair next to her husband. Remus does the same for Bellatrix before they sit at the table and are served some tea, declining to eat. The people at the table fall into conversations again and Sirius shifts, trying to be patient. He can feel the eyes of Marvolo Slytherin on him several times but refuses to interrupt their meal. Finally, the table is cleared and they are all holding cups of tea.

"How are you today Sirius?" Marvolo asks leadingly, and Sirius shares a look with Remus before taking a deep breath and explaining what happened that morning. There's a stunned silence before Narcissa's tinkling laugh is heard. All eyes turn to her, and they are surprised to see she has tears in her eyes while she's laughing.

"We are all searching for the boy, yet you all look so surprised that he's alive somewhere," she explains her laughter as she dabs at her eyes. That makes the men look a little sheepish.

"We are looking because it's the right thing to do. We didn't know if we'd find him alive or not, but we wanted to find him. If nothing else than to give his remaining family closure." Marvolo says quietly. He's leaned back in his chair, opposite Narcissa but next to Lucius, who was at the head of the table. He was staring off at something no one could see, his cup resting nearly on his chest as he thinks.

"Marvolo?" Rabastan asks.

"Hmm?"

"What are you thinking so hard about?"

"Harry of and Remus have searched high and low, nearly the whole continent, for him. He's obviously magical if an owl can find him, and alive if the owl left. I'm just trying to figure out how he could have…" he trails off and hums again before sitting up abruptly.

"Narcissa, I feel the need to steal Rabastan from you for a new project to find Harry." He says with no explanation.

"Of course."

"What will I be doing?" Rabastan asks curiously.

"I want you to look at Magical tutors. It's a long shot, but if the child isn't registered in school, then he might have a tutor."

"How do you know he isn't in school? What if he has another alias he's using there too?"

"Anyone who goes to a magical school in America has to have a full medical done and that involves a blood test. And it has to be done by a school official as well. It's an American Wizarding law. They'd know in a heartbeat if they had Harry Potter in their midst, quite literally. A tutor won't ask for something like that, a family doctor wouldn't be able to say anything, and a tutor can be live in as well and monitored."

"You think someone took him in and is… hiding him." Sirius says in realization.

"Perhaps." Marvolo agrees.

"This is more hope then you've had in years, Sirius." Remus murmurs to his obviously distraught friend.

"I'm still scared we are never going to find him." He says back before draining his tea.