Family Is Forever

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Everything belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling :)

Note: This is a short Harry Potter one-shot I decided to write. I absolutely love Sirius and Harry's relationship and wanted to write a fic on it. Harry's feeling upset about his parents and Sirius believes that it is his duty to comfort him.

This is set in OOTP when Harry spends Christmas with Sirius and the Weasleys etc in Grimmauld Place (movie.)

Hope you enjoy! :D

It was night. The icy wind outside was howling and rattling the doors, but it didn't affect the two people sat in the kitchen. Their cold hands were wrapped around warm mugs of hot chocolate and they sat in silence, enjoying each other's company. To be honest, neither of them really knew what to say. They hadn't seen each other in quite some time and if they weren't godfather and godson, then the situation would probably be awkward. The two of them loved each other as if they had lived together their whole life, but it was difficult to think of something happy to talk about with everything that was going on at the moment. They were, of course, Harry Potter and Sirius Black. Harry took another drink from his cup before placing it down and turning to his godfather.

"Padfoot?" he asked, watching as the older man's grey eyes locked with his own emerald orbs.

"Prongslet?" Sirius said, making Harry smile at the nickname his godfather had taken to calling him.

Harry hesitated and looked down. He wanted to ask a question, but didn't know how Sirius would react. After all, he was about to ask his godfather about his dead best friend. Surely that would affect him, and Harry didn't want that. However, he was also his own dad, and he had a right to know more about him, as well as his mother. Harry lifted his gaze and looked at the encouraging smile on Sirius's face as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Can you tell me about my parents?" he said with as much confidence as he could.

Unexpectedly, Sirius's smile stayed on his face. It was more of a sad smile now, however. He shifted a bit in his chair and looked out of the window for a few moments as if remembering all the fun times with James. After a while he turned his head back to his godson.

"Of course," he said. "I'd be glad to."

A small smile tugged at the corner of Harry's lips as he waited for Sirius to start speaking.

"Your father was my best friend, as you probably already know," he began. "We were always together, whether it be in Hogwarts or out. Remus and… Peter would usually be with us too." Both grimaced at the name and Sirius spoke it as if it were poison. He looked at Harry and felt his heart well up with so much love for the boy. They hadn't known each other long but the love they shared was already unconditional. Sirius sighed and continued.

"We had a lot of fun together. Back then, we were the pranksters in Hogwarts. Now, however, I believe it's those Weasley twins," he said.

Harry laughed a bit at this. Yes, those twins sure were trouble.

"Your mother, dear Lily, was a very clever and a very beautiful lady; no wonder she won your Dad's heart! She wouldn't usually help in our pranks but she'd come along and watch… much like Moony to be honest."

"Moony? Didn't he help with the pranks?"

"Sometimes. I think it depended on what it was. He didn't like getting told off by the teachers, whereas James and I didn't really seem to care," Sirius chuckled at the memory and Harry smiled. He liked seeing his godfather happy; after all, happiness was the least thing he deserved after wrongly being locked up in a prison cell for 12 years.

"Did people like him? Dad, I mean," Harry questioned. He had heard enough times from Professor Snape that his father was an 'arrogant swine' and wanted to know if he wasn't the only one who thought that.

"Oh, yes! James was the best friend I ever had and he was a good person. A very good person. A lot of people liked him… I guess you could say he was quite popular in Hogwarts. Why do you ask?" Sirius said.

Harry wanted to be truthful. Besides, he was pretty sure his godfather would want to know what his godson's teacher was saying about his best friend!

"Well," he started, "Professor Snape…"

Sirius visibly scowled at the mention of his name, but Harry chose to ignore it for now.

"… well, I don't think he liked my Dad very much. He calls him names and seems to hate me for being his son, too."

Sirius narrowed his eyes.

"What sort of things does he say?" the wizard asked, his tangled hair falling over his forehead as he leaned forward in his chair.

Harry's eyes widened. Maybe this wasn't a good idea.

"Well, he… er… he calls him miserable and lazy and arrogant and a... um… nevermind," Harry quickly stopped speaking. With each word he had said, the look of pure hatred towards the Potions Master on his godfather's face grew, and so he thought it wise to keep his mouth shut.

"A what, Harry?" Sirius asked, trying hard not to grit his teeth. Wow, he really did hate that greasy haired Professor. How dare he call his best friend names?!

Harry bit his lip. "A… swine," he said.

Sirius sat up straight. A swine. A… swine?!

"If anyone's a swine it's that stupid excuse of a Professor. Do you hear that James? A swine!" He seemed to forget that it was 3:00am and the only reason they were up was because neither of them could sleep.

"Sirius! Just because we're awake doesn't mean everyone else is!" Harry said, straining his ears to hear if a certain Mrs Weasley was thumping down the stairs.

"Ah, yes. Sorry. Really, though. If only James was still here; we'd have heaps of fun getting that old Snivellus back for what he's been saying," Sirius said, quieter now. He closed his eyes and sighed.

Harry was silent. He could clearly see that his godfather was missing his best friend; it was there for anyone to see. He looked- hold on.

"Snivellus?"

Sirius chuckled. "Mhm. Don't ask."

The two went quiet again, drinking their hot chocolate and listening to the vicious wind outside. It had gotten colder, which was understandable, seeing as it was only 2 days before Christmas.

Suddenly, Sirius heard a sniff. He looked up from his mug and frowned.

"Harry?" he said, looking at the forlorn face of his godson.

Harry didn't look up. He stared at the brown liquid in his mug, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall.

Sirius sighed; he should have known talking about James and Lily would cause some sort of reaction from the boy. Standing up, he pushed his chair back in place and put his mug in the sink.

"Hey, Prongslet," he said as he walked towards the door. Harry looked up, his cheeks flushed.

A warm smile lit up the older wizard's face as his godson looked at him. "Come on, you," he said.

The 15-year-old got up and followed Sirius down the corridor, wondering where they were going. They walked into a room which looked to be the living room and Harry watched as Sirius walked over to a black and gold coloured sofa and sat down, switching on a small lamp which was placed on the wooden table beside him. The Marauder looked up and noticed the questioning look on Harry's face.

"I figured this would be a better place for a hug," he said, opening his arms and smiling.

Harry felt a tear sliding down his cheek and didn't hesitate to run into his godfather's waiting arms. He'd never been shown this much love and affection before and he shut his eyes as Sirius held him close.

After a while, the older wizard heard a muffled whisper and looked down into the tired face of his godson. "What was that Prongslet?" he asked quietly.

"I said thank you."

"What for?"

"For being there for me."

Sirius felt his heart warm. "Don't thank me Harry. Honestly, when your parents made me your godfather I was the happiest person. I was excited to spend my life with you and watch you grow up, but obviously things changed and I unfortunately missed 13 years of your life. However, that isn't going to change anything. I love you, Harry, and I always will."

"I love you too," Harry said as he smiled and rubbed away the sleep in his eyes.

"Tired, Prongslet?"

"A little."

Sirius reached behind him and grabbed the soft blanket that was draped over the back of the sofa. Still holding his precious godson in his arms like the first time he had done so 15 years ago, he covered the both of them with the blanket and got himself into a more comfortable position.

"Sirius?" Harry mumbled.

"Yes?" Sirius said.

"It is okay to miss my parents, right?"

Sirius was shocked. Why ever would someone not miss their parents if they had died? Well… excluding himself. Not that he had wanted his parents to die when he was younger; it was just difficult to love them when they had treated him so horribly.

"Of course! Harry, why wouldn't you miss them?" he asked.

"Well I… I don't know. I don't remember them; I was only 1-year-old when they died. Some people are much older when their parents die, and I guess sometimes I think it's silly to cry over it because I barely knew them."

Sirius didn't know what to say, and he was pretty sure James and Lily would feel the exact same way if they were here!

"Harry, they're your parents. You should miss them more than anyone! Yes, you were young, but that doesn't mean much at all. Of course it's okay to miss them, don't ever question that, okay? It's very difficult to grow up without your parents being there for you; take it from someone who knows. They loved you more than anything, Harry. They were your family, and family is forever," he said, shifting slightly on the sofa.

Harry nodded and sniffed again as he felt his godfather's arms tighten around him.

"Family is forever. Thank you Padfoot," the young wizard mumbled.

"What did I say? Don't thank me; it's what godfathers do," he said with a wink.

Harry laughed a bit and sighed. He looked up at the clock on the wall.

"It's 4:00am," he said around a yawn.

Sirius's eyes widened. "Are you serious?" he asked, staring up at the wall to confirm Harry's statement; he'd never been up this late without falling asleep where he was standing!

"No, you are," Harry grinned.

Sirius laughed. "Way to lighten the mood Prongslet," he said as he lightly punched his godson's shoulder under the blanket. He looked down and smiled to himself; Harry looked so much like James. The same messy, black hair, the same round spectacles that rested on his nose and the same fair face. Then there were the eyes. Lily's eyes. Those big, emerald green spheres that were the first things you noticed when you looked at him. Oh, how he missed his friends.

"Go to sleep now Harry," he said softly, kissing the top of Harry's head and stroking his raven hair.

Harry yawned. "Mhm. Goodnight Sirius," he said.

Sirius pulled the blanket up to Harry's chin and reached out to the lamp beside him before turning it off and shuffling into a more comfortable position. "Goodnight, my Harry."

Hope you enjoyed! Thank you so much for reading; please review :P ~ Gre3nleaf