In which Sirius is somewhat more concerned about his godson than he is about Ron. Sorry Ron.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognisable.

It took the hippogriff a moment to readjust its balance with the addition of a third human, jostling all its passengers alarmingly and causing Hermione to cling painfully to Harry.
"Ok Buckbeak," Harry said, "go up," and gave the makeshift reins a shake.
"I'm going to head south," Sirius half shouted over the noise of Buckbeak's powerful wings, "let myself get spotted."
"What if you get caught?" Harry had to shout as well to be heard over the clatter of Buckbeak's landing on the roof of the West Tower.
Sirius gave a bark of laughter, "they didn't manage to catch me with a hundred Dementors and one location - although I'll have to be more careful, no time-travelling heroes," he said as Harry and Hermione carefully slid off Buckbeak without kicking either each other or Sirius.
"You'd better go," Hermione said, grabbing Harry's wrist to check his watch, "they'll reach Flitwick's office any minute," she paused for a moment and then exclaimed, "oh bother."
"What," Harry and Sirius said together
"How are we going to get past them and back to the Hospital Wing? We don't have the cloak!" Harry groaned, she was right.
"The south tower's just as close to the Hospital Wing," Sirius said, grinning, "it's on my way anyway, want a lift?"

Harry and Hermione climbed back on Buckbeak and Sirius took the reins, sending the hippogriff and his three passengers off the edge of the tower and south.
"Where will you go?" Harry asked, quieter now Buckbeak was mostly gliding and he wasn't talking over the top of Hermione.
"London, I suppose," Sirius said, keeping one eye on the Hogwarts roof so they didn't miss the tower, "then I don't know."
"Where would we have gone? If Pettigrew..." said Harry
"Hadn't been a rat?" Sirius finished, "Don't know, I haven't seen any of my family in the best part of twenty years so it would depend on how many of them are dead." He sounded surprisingly cheerful about that and Hermione made a disapproving noise into the space between Harry's shoulder blades where she'd buried her head. The tight grip around his waist was back. "Ah, South Tower." Sirius said, pulling the reins and sending Buckbeak down and to the left to land noisily on the roof.

Hermione nearly fell over in her haste to get down from the hippogriff's back.
"I'll write to you when I can," Sirius said as Harry slid down after her, "we'll see each other again Harry."
With that Buckbeak took off into the night, Harry couldn't help but watch the speck that was his godfather even as Hermione pulled him towards the stairs heading downwards.

Panting they arrived at the Hospital Wing just in time to hear Dumbledore say good luck to their previous selves and leave the room. He looked around and spotted them before he shut the door and smiled.
"Well done, I presume," he said and Harry and Hermione nodded. The headmaster paused for a moment, listening intently to what was going on inside the room, "yes, I think you've gone as well. I'll lock you inside."
They snuck into the room and headed back to their respective beds, the lock clicking behind them. Hermione had just slipped the Time Turner back into her robe pocket when Madam Pomfrey bustled out of her office and thrust some chocolate at them, evidently disgruntled by the Headmaster's interference. Madam Pomfrey kept handing the both of them chocolate until the sound of angry but indistinct voices could be heard heading towards the door.

It was much easier to deal with Snape shouting about Sirius now that he knew his godfather was safe and free. He had to keep eating the chocolate in order to hide his grin, which he was sure would actually cause Snape to explode. In fact, looking at the Potions professor raging he couldn't help but be reminded of Dudley having a tantrum about not getting what he wanted.

That image had him choking on his chocolate as Madam Pomfrey gave him a thump on the back to clear it and a glass of water to drink as Snape finally gave up and stormed out of the room.

"That was quite unpleasant," Fudge said, wringing his hands, "he seems unbalanced so I suppose...I suppose it's rather a good thing. Wouldn't do for him to have an outburst like that at the presentation ceremony."
"I quite agree Cornelius," Dumbledore said, "now, about the dementors."
"With Black's escape and this...incident," he gestured to Harry, "they'll be gone by tonight. Dementors attempting the Kiss on an innocent will be the least of our worries after the news breaks that we had Black cornered and he escaped. We'll be a laughing stock if the Prophet finds out about the blasted hippogriff escaping too..."
"Perhaps we should have this conversation in my office Cornelius," Dumbledore said,
"I quite agree," Madam Pomfrey said archly as Ron groaned and shifted.

Dumbledore lead a distracted Fudge out of the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey shut the door firmly and locked it.
"Hopefully that's the last interruption tonight," she said, pursing her lips and striding back into her office.
"Wazzappenin," came from Ron's bed, followed by a groan as he heaved himself upright, "what happened? Where's Sirius? Lupin? Pettigrew? What happened."
"Can you explain?" Hermione said to Harry, "I want to sleep."
"Sure."

His version probably wasn't the most coherent, jumping around on events but then neither of them was particularly coherent either - Ron from whatever magic Pettigrew had managed to hit him with and Harry from a combination of exhaustion, joy and quite a lot of chocolate. He was fairly sure that he'd ended up falling asleep mid-sentence because the next thing he knew it was morning and Hermione was shaking him awake.

After a quick examination Madam Pomfrey ruled Harry and Hermione could leave but Ron would have to remain
"But..." Ron argued
"No, Mr. Weasley," the mediwitch said sternly, "you broke your leg last night and kept walking on it even with strapping. No matter how much of a brave face you put on it, your leg needs more rest. You may be able to leave by lunchtime if you sit back down right now and take this potion."
"Sorry," Harry said,
"S'alright mate," Ron said, sitting back down in defeat.
"We could stay?" Hermione suggested.
"No thank you Miss Granger," said Madam Pomfrey, "now, you two - out."

Defeated, the two headed out of the Hospital Wing and down to the Great Hall just in time to see the mass exodus of most of the students over third year.
"I forgot, it's a Hogsmeade weekend," Hermione said, sitting down the remnants of breakfast at the Gryffindor table.
"Are you going to go?" said Harry, managing to find some toast and bacon, grateful for whatever magic meant the food wasn't cold.
"No. I'm too tired, you can't go and Ron probably won't be able to walk that far if he gets released today."
They were interrupted by an owl swooping down towards them. It wasn't Hedwig but a rather generic looking brown owl who dropped a heavy letter in front of Harry and then soared away. Breakfast forgotten he tore it open, finding both a letter and a small mirror. Setting the mirror aside he turned to the letter
"Who's it from? What does it say?" Hermione asked and he tilted it towards her and let her read.

Dear Harry
Managed to get to London before the sun got up but that's all I'm saying about where I am right now. Turns out my dear old mum popped her clogs in '84 but my grandpa Arcturus reinherited me before he died in 1991. Letters can be intercepted so here's a much easier way to contact me. Your dad and I used to use them if we were in separate detentions. Just say my name into it and we'll be able to talk.
Sirius

"Do you think it works?" Hermione said, picking up the mirror and turning it over in her hands.
"I hope so," said Harry, looking hopefully at it "let's try it out."
"Not here," she said, "it's still a little crowded."

The two of them headed outside into the warm sun. Sitting down by the lake Harry held up the mirror in front of him and said "Sirius"
A moment passed and then the grinning face of his godfather appeared, "You got my letter, good."
"Did my Dad really use this mirror?" Harry said,
"Yes, it still activates to James," Sirius said, joy dimming, "I didn't have time to change the enchantments before I sent it to you."
"Where did you get it?" Hermione said.
"Made 'em years ago," Sirius said, "Aurors tossed my flat at some point, probably after I was arrested, made finding things a nightmare. I suppose I'm lucky they didn't send everything to my dear old mum, she'd have set everything on fire."
"You said she was dead," said Hermione.
"And you're wondering how I can be so cheerful?" Sirius said, raising an eyebrow. At Hermione's slightly embarrassed look he continued, "my mum was a pureblood bigot a step away from joining the Death Eaters, after I got sorted into Gryffindor I barely ever stayed there and I still got disinherited before fifth year. Your grandparents took me in, Harry, they were better parents than mine ever were."
"Really," Harry perked up, "nobody's ever said anything about them before."
"I've got a few stories about them I could tell you. Mostly I sent this to you so I could talk about the summer holidays - apparently one of the things the Black family owns that I never knew about is an island in the Bermuda Triangle."
"Really!" Harry and Hermione said together.
"Yeah, there's more than a few magically owned islands there. I'm going to let myself get seen once or twice more and then I'm heading out there, do you want to join me Harry."
"Yes," Harry said immediately.
"What about your Aunt and Uncle?" Hermione said, "won't they mind. Besides, what if you get caught?
"They won't care, and I don't care," Harry said emphatically, "I blew up Aunt Marge last summer and ran away, Ron and the twins had to pull bars off my window to get me out the summer before that, I don't think I'll have been forgiven for either of those yet and that's if they don't start locking me in my room again." Hermione and Sirius were both looking aghast at that.
"I...I didn't know it was that bad," Hermione said. Harry shrugged. Being able to roam around Diagon Alley had definitely been the best summer of his life so far.
"You're coming with me for the summer," Sirius said, firmer than Harry had ever heard him, "and every other holiday. You can't legally live with me but I don't care, it's my fault you went to those people in the first place. Besides, if we get caught then as far as whoever catches us is concerned, evil convict Sirius Black kidnapped the Boy-Who-Lived."
"We can't change the past," Hermione said, then she started giggling, "well, we sort of can." She looked nervously between Harry and Sirius and the joke got a laugh out of both of them.
"Still, I can't go from the station to your island," Harry said, "I mean, I don't think I can. Can I?"
"You're right, you can't," Sirius said, "Diagon Alley maybe, or with your friend Ron - where is he?"
"He's still in the Hospital Wing," said Harry,
"And you can't go with Ron anyway," Hermione said, "his parents would want to know where you were going or would notice that you'd disappeared."
"You're right, and Mrs. Weasley would want to know who I was staying with and I don't exactly know many other wizarding adults," Harry said, dejected.
"You could come back to Winchester with me, I mean as long as whatever it is won't seem like I did magic, my parents would understand I'm sure and we could just say it was your godfather and not say your name Sirius," Hermione said all of this rather quickly.

"That could work," said Sirius, nodding.
"I can go and write to them now," she said.
"That would be great," Harry said, "I can come with you."
"No, you should get to talk to Sirius," she said, "I mean, without anybody else."
The man in question was smothering a large yawn, "Actually I could really use some sleep, we can talk later."
"OK," Harry said, "bye"
"Bye"
"Goodbye"
Sirius' gaunt face disappeared and Harry and Hermione found themselves looking at their reflections.
"I'm going to go and write to Mum and Dad," Hermione said, "can I borrow Hedwig?"

With the snowy owl winging her way to Winchester carrying a letter Harry and Hermione headed back outside, it was really too hot to be inside the castle for too long.
"'ARRY," a friendly bellow startled the both of them but a beaming Hagrid waved them over and started speaking as soon as they were in hearing range "Beaky, he 'scaped. Las' night. An' Professor Lupin says he never ate anythin' las' night so Beaky's free."
"Professor Lupin?" Harry said, attempting curiosity.
"What do you mean 'ate anything last night'?" Hermione said at the same time.
"Haven't yeh heard?" said Hagrid, pulling out a handkerchief roughly the size of a tablecloth to mop his face, "Snape tol' all the Slytherin's this mornin', figured everyone knew by now. Professor Lupin, well he's...erm...he's a werewolf an' he was runnin' around the grounds las' night."
Both teenagers hoped their gasps of fake surprise sounded realistic but they seemed to satisfy Hagrid.
"Is...is he leaving?" Hermione said.
"Prob'ly. I 'eard he tried to resign this mornin' but Dumbledore weren't having it. Great man Dumbledore,"
"I'm going to see him," Harry said immediately, turning back to the castle.

The door to Lupin's office was open and Harry looked around the partially packed room before he knocked.
"I expected you," Lupin said, looking up from the very familiar battered piece of parchment
"I just saw Hagrid," said Harry. "He said you'd tried to resign but Dumbledore didn't let you? Why are you packing?"
"Dumbledore said it was silly for me to leave a week before the year end. My resignation has been accepted and I'll be leaving with the lot of you."
"Why?" said Harry, "nobody thinks you helped Sirius do they,"
Lupin got up to shut the office door, "no, Dumbledore convinced them that - officially at least - I was just an innocent bystander. But I'm a werewolf, so there'll be a lot of people who don't believe that."
"You're the best defence teacher we've ever had," said Harry, "I'd be dead, and so would Sirius and Hermione, if it wasn't for you."
"And how much you've learnt is the thing I'm the proudest of this year Harry," Lupin said, smiling, "but now that Severus...accidentally let slip I'm a werewolf, Dumbledore will be getting a fleet of howlers tomorrow morning. The only reason I'm not leaving tonight is that the end of term is a week away and there aren't any full moons between now and then." He smiled wryly at that, "will you tell me about your patronus?"
"How do you..." Harry trailed off, "dementors, right."
"Well done," Lupin said, "only a very powerful Patronus could have driven off that many dementors."
"It looked like a stag," Harry said, "that was...was that what my dad turned into. I thought I saw him last night."
"You're right," Lupin said, looking at him fondly, "your dad's animagus form was a stag, that's why we called him Prongs." Lupin turned away and opened a desk drawer and when he turned back there was a silvery cloak making parts of Lupin's arms disappear, "I brought this back from the Shack last night and..." he hesitated and then placed the battered parchment on top of it, "I'm still technically your teacher but I dont feel guilty about giving you this. I'm sure you, Ron and Hermione will find some use for it, probably a better one than we ever did."

Harry grinned as he took the map and the cloak, the only real things he had that belonged to his father, "you said Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs would have wanted to lure me out of the castle, you said they'd have thought it was funny.
"And I meant it. If...if James and Lily had lived we'd have had weekly letters about what trouble you'd gotten into. James would have been disappointed if you hadn't found at least one secret passage out of the school. As it is I think he'd...I think both of your parents would be proud of you just as you are." Harry thought he might hurt himself if he smiled any more, it felt like he'd drunk a mug of warm butterbeer all in one go.

For the next week the three things which amused Harry, Ron and Hermione the most were the varied theories as to how Sirius Black and Buckbeak the hippogriff had managed to escape, Malfoy's furious expressions whenever someone mentioned Buckbeak's escape and the venomous glares directed at Professor Lupin by Snape - all of which were returned with placid smiles. Once again, Harry couldn't help by compare Snape to his cousin Dudley in terms of childishness.

As far as Harry was concerned this was the best year ever. The weather was beautiful, Snape and Malfoy were angry and couldn't do anything about it, Gryffindor had won the House and Quidditch Cups, Sirius was free but most importantly he wasn't going back to the Dursleys. Hermione's parents had written back to her saying that they were quite happy to have Harry to stay for a few days until he could travel out to see his godfather and he'd immediately written to the Dursleys saying that they didn't need to come and pick him up. He was going to spend the summer on a tropical island with his godfather rather than stuck in Number 4 Privet Drive.

The only things even slightly dampening his spirits were that Professor Lupin was leaving - something the rest of his Defence class shared - and wondering what had happened to Pettigrew, whether he'd joined up with Voldemort, whether sparing his life had been the right thing. But both of those things were unable to really bring him down. He was going to live with his parent's best friend, which was the next best thing to living with his parents.

Sirius hadn't written again but they'd spoken over the mirror a few times, to confirm that Harry would be at Hermione's house and that Sirius had reached the island safely after making sure he was spotted a few times.

The exam results came out on the last day of term, all three of them had managed to pass everything - although neither Harry nor Ron had done as well as Hermione. Harry was still amazed that he'd managed to pass Potions since Snape seemed to hate him even more now, and Harry hadn't even known that was possible, or at least the unpleasant facial tic which seemed to happen every time Snape looked at Harry hadn't happened before. He mentioned that to Sirius that night via the mirror, when he awkwardly told him his marks. How well or how badly he'd done had never mattered to Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia but Dudley got fussed over no matter what he got. Sirius seemed happy and proud at the marks he'd got and nearly fell over laughing when Harry described how angry Snape seemed about the loss of his Order of Merlin.

Thanks mostly to the 230-20 win over Slytherin, Gryffindor had won both cups and so the entire hall was bedecked in red and gold and the noise from Gryffindor was truly ear-splitting. Harry nearly choked laughing when Ron nudged him and pointed at the head table. McGonagall, Hagrid and Lupin were all beaming and Snape appeared to be attempting not to explode from sheer loathing as he sat as far as possible away from the Head of Gryffindor. Lupin raised his glass in a toast when he caught Harry's eye and Harry raised his in return.

Harry himself was happy enough to be in the middle of the noise and chatter, eating and drinking as the twins made increasingly elaborate toasts to the Quidditch team. This was the best excuse he'd had to let how happy he was really show, winning the cups was great but it was nothing to not having to go back to the Dursleys tomorrow. Or ever again, he hoped.

Next morning was chaos, as all five members of Gryffindor's third year's boys dorm frantically finished packing in time for the trunks to go on the train and for them head down to the station. Dean was talking non-stop about the World Cup and so was Ron, although the world cups they spoke of were for different sports and mostly just confused Seamus, Harry and Neville.

It was only once they'd gotten on to the express and Harry and Ron had settled into a compartment with Hermione that she gave them both some news "I'm dropping Muggle Studies next year."
"But you passed your exam with 300% or something," said Ron.
"Only because my parents sent me some history books. The course is a hundred years or more out of date. Besides the Time Turner was driving me mad, I don't think I could survive another year like that so I gave it back. Without Muggle Studies or Divination I've got a normal schedule - and McGonagall said that you can apply to take the OWL independently so I could do that."
"I can't believe you didn't tell us about that Time Turner," Ron said, grumpily, "right Harry?"
"Hmm, what?" Harry said, he'd been staring out of the window and not really paying attention.
"Harry," Ron said and Harry shook himself and looked back at his two best friends "what are you thinking about mate?"
"Oh, just the holidays," Harry said, he'd explained that he was going to stay with Sirius to Ron - worried that he'd sound ungrateful or like a really bad friend but Ron had been happy about it, made a joke about not having to rescue him this summer.

"I wish you could come to the Quidditch World Cup with us mate, I'm sure Dad could get an extra ticket for you," Ron said, "I mean it's Ireland playing Bulgaria in England." Harry looked at his friend slightly confused, he loved playing Quidditch but he didn't really follow the teams, let alone the national ones.
"I don't know if I can get back from the island for that or how I'd get to your house without your parents getting suspicious," Harry said.
"You're right, but what do I tell Mum and Dad if they ask why you can't come?" said Ron.
"I don't know...tell them the Dursleys went on holiday or something and I'm with them," said Harry vaguely, not mentioning that he doubted the Dursleys would ever have taken him on holiday with them even if he'd had a passport, "you can't mention Sirius to them though Ron." He remembered Mr. Weasley's warning to him at the beginning of the year, which had ultimately turned out to be pointless, but the Weasley parents would raise the alarm with the Ministry if they found out who he was really with.
"Yeah, I know mate," Ron said.

"What's that outside the window," Hermione said suddenly. Both boys turned around to look at what seemed like an oversized grey fluffy snitch that was appearing and disappearing from site beyond the edge of the window. Harry opened the window and, judging the owl's next surge forward, grabbed it and the oversized letter it was carrying and pulled it inside.
"It's a letter," Harry said, removing it from the tiny owl's legs and letting the bird go. It began flying around the compartment with almost cartoonish speed. Crookshanks adjusted himself into a crouch, eyeing the small flying thing, and Ron grabbed the bird out of the air.

"Dear Harry & friends," Harry read aloud, "this should reach you before you get back to London. I'm enclosing this to make your next school year more enjoyable," Harry saw the second piece of paper which was a Hogsmeade form filled out in illegible handwriting with a surprisingly swirly signature that sort of read S. Black, "since we've sorted out the summer already. The owl is for your friend Ron as an apology for breaking his leg, and because I owe him a pet."
"It's mine?" Ron said, eyes widening as he looked down at the little owl who was nibbling on a finger. He offered the owl to Crookshanks, "what do you reckon, owl or not?" Crookshanks purred, "that's good enough for me."
"Anything else in the letter Harry?" said Hermione
"No, just 'Padfoot'," Harry said, "if he really needed to talk to me we've got the mirror."

He couldn't help but keep an eye on it the rest of the journey back though, having put it in his robe pocket rather than his trunk, the gnawing fear in his stomach that something would happen, Sirius would call and say that he could no longer come to the island or something else which would mean the end of Harry's Dursley-free summer.

No such call came but he couldn't help the nerves. Even when they arrived at the platform and Mrs Weasley moved down the line of her children, giving each of them a hug in greeting and including him in that. When he and Hermione went through the barrier the Dursleys were nowhere to be seen and Hermione waved at a middle aged couple who came hurrying over to hug her.
"Hi Mum, hi Dad," she said.

I hope you enjoyed it and I'll hopefully update next week with the next chapter. In the interim if anyone has an idea for a better title, I'd be happy to hear it.