Welcome to a new story and continuation of What's in a Name and Watching Over Me! For those of you who haven't read those two stories, you may be a bit lost, but please keep in mind that this is AU so characters you know from the wonderful JK Rowling are a little different in my world. Severus Snape is friends with the Marauders and has given up spying to help Sirius and Remus in their attempts to raise Harry safely to adulthood. NO SLASH is involved in this story. Harry is 14 but has spent most of his life without having someone to care for him, so be prepared for lots of love, hugs, and general affection on the part of Sirius and for Harry to be very needy for the above demonstrations!

Part 1

The summer day had dawned bright and clear; a perfect day to spend playing outside in the grass or flying on a broomstick through the cloudless sky. A day to doze under a big tree next to the lake after being stuffed full of a picnic lunch.

Unfortunately for Harry Potter, none of those things were happening for him.

At this particular moment, the fourteen year old was hand washing dishes from breakfast, something that would normally have been done by the castle's cadre of house elves. Today, however, it was Harry's job. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks. In between, his hands would be buried inside cauldrons in Professor Severus Snape's lab cleaning them by hand as well.

Another problem was that his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, were sentenced to a similar punishment, only they were scrubbing the classrooms Remus Lupin and Sirius Black would be teaching in once the school term started. Ron slumped along behind the werewolf after breakfast was done carrying his bucket and scrub brush, while Hermione, blushing red over being punished at all, hid behind her bushy hair with another bucket and brush as she followed the canine animagus.

"Finished?"

Harry placed the final dish on the rack and turned to face his potions master, "Yes, sir."

"Come along, then."

The teenager trailed after the man to his lab and made a face at the huge pile of cauldrons, stirrers, measurement utensils, and myriad other supplies needed for brewing that awaited him. With a soft sigh, he donned the dragonhide gloves Sev extended to him and began the next phase of his punishment.

"Refresh my memory, please, Mr. Potter. You are doing this, why?"

He bowed his head over his work and continued scrubbing even as he answered, "Because the three of us haven't got the sense Merlin gave an owl."

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"And which sense would that be?" Remus demanded softly.

"The sense of self-preservation," Ron muttered from his place on the floor in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom as he diligently plied his brush to the stone floor.

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"And what were you doing to jeopardize yourself?" Sirius growled from his perch on the desk in the Transfiguration classroom that was now his.

"Trying to transform ourselves into our animagus animals without proper adult supervision," Hermione recited as she rubbed briskly at the ink stains running down the table legs with her brush.

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"…and we swear that we will never do it again!" All three children chorused from their position on the rug before the fireplace in the Marauder's common room.

"If you do," Sirius threatened, "I will see to it that you never transform again. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Bed! Now!" He ordered and all three bolted for bedrooms without a backwards look. Hermione had one to herself and part of her wished she could have been in with the two boys so they could share their horrible day together.

Sirius collapsed to sit on the other end of the couch from Remus as Sev made use of his favorite cushy chair, "Hopefully, today put all thoughts out of their minds of ever doing something like that again."

The sandy haired man shook his head, "I still can't believe that they tried to convince us that Hagrid, of all people, could be considered 'proper adult supervision!'"

Fixing his friends with a dark look, Severus grumbled, "I blame James for this."

The other two wizards stared at him in stunned disbelief until Remus finally stuttered, "Ja…Ja…James?! How can you possibly blame a man long dead for something his son, who doesn't even remember him, attempted to do?"

"It's very simple, Moony. I either blame James, you, Dumbledore, or Fenrir Greyback." He ignored the repeated spluttering and continued, "If Greyback hadn't bit you, Remus, you never would have become a werewolf. If you weren't a werewolf, Dumbledore wouldn't have had to make special arrangements for you during our time at Hogwarts at full moons. James figured out you were a werewolf and insisted the rest of the Marauders become animagi. Harry is far too much like James at times for my level of comfort. Therefore, it is James' fault for passing on the Marauder gene and desire to be an animagus to Harry and getting us into this fix to begin with!"

Sirius blinked several times as he tried very hard to follow this weird logic, and finally he just gave up, "Okay, James it is." He rose and stretched, "I'm going to check on the children and be right back. We can bash James a little more, then."

"Sirius!" Remus rebuked. "We shouldn't speak ill of the dead!"

He shrugged one shoulder, "Then when I get back, we can blame you." He strolled to the door leading to Hermione's room and tapped softly, leaving the wolf muttering imprecations behind him. When a soft voice invited him in, the handsome man slipped in, left the door cracked a bit, and approached the large bed, "Settled, Hermione?"

The teenage girl nodded from her place amongst a nest of pillows and waited until her friend's guardian reached her side, "I really am sorry, Sirius. I should have known better than to try the transformation; I let my pride rule my judgment and it won't happen again."

He seated himself on the edge of the bed facing the girl as he tucked her in, "'Mione, the three of you have done spectacularly well on your animagus forms, and I am certainly proud of you. However, there is still the element of danger in attempting the change without someone who knows what they're doing close by. I rely on your good common sense to help balance out Ron's recklessness and Harry's hero complex. It may be too much to ask of a fourteen year old girl, but I can't be with them every moment of the day."

Hermione nodded in understanding, "I know, Sirius, and I promise that I will be more aware in the future. I've gotten the two of them this far in the last three years without either of them dying on me; I think I can manage another four."

He chuckled softly and patted her foot through the blanket covering her, "I'm pretty sure you can, too. Good night, Hermione."

"Night, Sirius."

Pacing back through the common room, he noticed Remus dozing on the couch and flicked a light blanket over him. The times before and after the full moon were draining on his friend and he didn't want the man to catch a chill. There was no sign of Sev, but faint noises from the end of the hallway where their bedrooms were located indicated he must be in his private lab.

Entering his ward's bedroom, he found Ron already sound asleep and snoring contentedly from his sprawled position in his bed on one side of the room. Lifting the blanket slightly, Sirius moved one foot that was sticking out back under its warmth and resettled the covers just under his red head.

Turning to the other bed, his beloved godson was sitting up watching him as he made his way over to sit on the bed. Simply holding out his arms, he invited the child in for a hug and wrapped his arms tightly around the slender form when Harry accepted and leaned into him. Bedtimes had quickly become a special moment for the two of them; a chance to talk softly about their day, a hug just to know that each is there for the other, and for Sirius to indulge in his paternal feelings and tenderly tuck the boy into bed with a loving kiss pressed to his messy hair.

Despite the fact that the boy was fourteen and normally would have been beyond such pampering, Harry felt that since he'd been deprived of such love growing up, he could enjoy it as long as his godfather was willing to give it. Sirius felt the exact same way and happily spoiled the youngster as much as he could.

"You know how much I love you, right, pup?"

"I love you, too, Siri."

One large hand slid into the black mop and pressed the boy's ear to his heart, "Do you hear that?" The head nodded, "When I found the three of you trying your transformations without one of us present, my heart literally stopped beating out of pure terror." He felt the child shudder slightly against him and continued, "When I think back on how stupid we were on trying the animagus change without an adult, I'm still amazed we managed to survive. There are so many things that can go wrong. In fact, the rat actually got trapped partway through his change and it took all three of us to force him back to fully human. The pain he was in was excruciating, as bad as a crucio in many ways."

Huge, luminous green eyes filled with tears lifted to meet anguished grey, "I'm so sorry, Siri, I swear we'll never do it again without one of you there. We really thought we were ready to try it on our own, I didn't mean to scare you so badly."

Sirius tugged the young wizard closer again, carding his elegant fingers through his hair soothingly, "I know, pup, I know. I just hope that today taught you a lesson you won't soon forget." The head under his fingers nodded frantically, "Good. You're very close to being able to handle the transformation without supervision, but not until Sev and I are completely sure." He lowered his voice a bit more, "Especially with Ron. He's a little slower than you and Hermione so I don't want him to feel left behind like the rat did."

Hands tightened around the man's waist as Harry recognized a very real possibility of Ron following in Peter Pettigrew's footsteps if precautions weren't taken. His best friend was very loyal, but at times he felt abandoned by Harry and Hermione because of their quick grasp of magic and innate power. It was a concern the boy had shared with his godfather late one night over a cup of hot chocolate when neither of them could sleep.

"I'll be extra careful, Sirius, I wont let that happen," he vowed.

"I know you won't, you have a good heart, Harry. Lily and James would have been so proud of you, just as I am."

The boy smiled against his godfather's chest, flushed with pleasure those simple words wrought in him. Having Sirius in his life had brought many changes for the better and Harry felt on top of the world whenever he was complimented on doing something right. And, as he found out today, even when he was in trouble for doing something so incredibly stupid, he was still loved.

"Ready for bed, pup?"

He nodded as he pulled away from his guardian and settled against the pillows. Sirius tugged the blanket up to his chin as he curled up on his side, then leaned down to brush a light kiss over the messy mop of black hair. A gentle pat on his hip was followed with a low, "Good night, pup; I love you."

"Night, Siri; love you, too."

Part 2 is very soon to follow!

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Happy reading, all!

Nikani