A/N: I know, I know, I know. I owe two apologies! One: This story took longer to update than I had originally planned! This installment was hard to write, and the ideas I kept having kept sucking in my mind. Two: I promised, that I would be going lighter in these next few installments, but I accidentally went dark again. Also, Snape wanted to come in earlier than I wanted him to, and he made me go dark. So I apologize. I swear, I will write something light soon, and I will add another installment soon.

Disclaimer: I killed Lily, but let Harry have James as a parent. I did the Disney parent structure. Can I have a job as a story writer for you now?

Sirius walked along the busy street toward the Leaky Cauldron trying to avoid the stares that were coming his way. Despite it being nearly Christmas, everyone was still talking about what had happened on Halloween. It seemed that the entire wizarding world and Merlin himself knew that Lily had been killed, Harry had somehow survived, and that he and James were now living with Sirius.

James had barely left the house preferring to stay inside with Harry, but when he did, he only went to the muggle world and would only leave for an hour at most. 'Can't really blame him though,' Sirius reasoned to himself, 'When you consider how they look at me when I come here. I'm not even important to this story.'

He reached the door to the pub, and pushed it open. He was grateful for the darker interior. It meant that he could get through the pub more easily, and with less-

"Black." A voice that Sirius hated said his name, and he turned.

"Snivellus! I see the rumor is true, and you managed to avoid Azkaban." Sirius said coolly.

Severus opened his mouth, as though he was about to retort, closed it, and then turned his back to Sirius, facing the bar again. "I should have gone. It's my fault she's gone."

Sirius stood there, unsure of what to do. The man sitting before him was not the adversary he had known in school. No, this was a broken man, possibly even more so than James, he realized. Sirius had always known that Snape had a thing for Lily. He just thought that since Snape had joined the death eaters he had gotten over it.

Sirius sighed, and sat down on the stool next to him. "It isn't your fault."

Snape laughed. It was a hollow, humorless laugh, and Sirius prayed he never heard it again. "It is. I'm the one who told the Dark Lord about the prophecy."

Sirius stayed silent. He'd known a little of the prophecy. It was the whole reason that James and Lily had gone into hiding, but they had never known how Voldemort had found out about the prophecy.

"I tried to fix it," Snape continued. "When I realized that he had interpreted it to mean Lily, and his boy. I went to Dumbledore. I switched sides, tried to act as a spy to protect her. But I failed. He still killed her."

Sirius wrestled with how to respond. On the one hand, he wanted to kill his childhood nemesis for what he had just admitted. It was his fault that James, Lily, and Harry had giant targets placed on their backs, and put them in even more danger. But, if he started a fight, then he wouldn't make it home, and James and Harry were expecting him, and James would be furious if he had to leave the house to go to the ministry to get Sirius out of trouble for being involved in a bar brawl.

"It isn't your fault," Sirius tried. Snape snorted, and took a big swig of the firewhiskey he had sitting in front of him.

"It isn't! They should have been protected by the fidelius charm. But when they asked me to be the secret keeper, I said no, and told them to make it Peter. We had no idea he was a spy for Voldemort, but he sold them out. It is Voldemort and Peter who are responsible for her death. Not me, not James, and not even you." Sirius stood up, put a few galleons on the bar, and started to walk away.

"Black?"

Sirius stopped and turned to look at the man.

Snape looked down at his glass and asked "Does he, the boy, look like her?"

"He looks like James. Just like him." Sirius started to walk away, but then turned back and said, "His eyes though. They're Lily's eyes."

Snape nodded his head. "Thank you."

Sirius walked to the fireplace, threw some floo powder in, and went home. When he stepped out of the fireplace, he was unsurprised to see toys scattered all over the floor, with Harry and James sitting in the middle, Harry babbling nonsense happily, and James listening to him, as though it was the most engaging story he'd ever heard.

James looked up. "You were gone a while. What took so long?"

Sirius debated in his mind about telling James about the encounter he'd just had with Snape. "I was mobbed by all the single women in Diagon Alley because they all want to marry me." He said jovially, deciding that James could hear about that later.

"Did you accept any proposals?" James asked, pushing some of the toys out of the way so that Sirius could sit with them.

"Nah, told them that I had an adoring husband and baby back home waiting for me." Sirius said with full seriousness. Harry grabbed a stuffed bear, crawled into Sirius's lap, and stuck the bear's ear into his mouth. Sirius smiled down at the boy and then looked at James. "Although, looking at you, I might need to go back and take up one of the offers. When was the last time you showered, or shaved?"

James looked down at himself. "A couple of days ago," he guessed.

Sirius grabbed Harry and stood up. "Well you smell, and Harry agrees with me. Just because you are going to be a hermit, doesn't mean that you can be a smelly one. You can be a well-groomed one too."

James, held out his arms. "Give me back my son. I'll shower when he's in bed tonight."

Sirius backed up. "No chance. I'm holding him hostage. The payment for him is a shower. Now go!"

James got up, and walked up the stairs. Sirius looked at the giggling boy in his arms. He pushed back Harry's hair and looked at the scar. It was no longer the angry red it had been on Halloween, but it was still there. Harry looked up at him, and Sirius grinned, letting his hair fall, covering the scar again, leaving him looking like any other child, but with beautiful, green eyes.