So here's the alternate version. I'd tell you what happens, but then I'd spoil everything. I will tell you, however, that it's AU. Not incredibly AU, but it's still AU.

"Harry, are you dressed? You can't be late for your first day of school!" a man's voice was heard from the inside of a two story house. It had blue paint and toys littered the front yard. A motorbike stood abandoned to one side of the yard, a white Volkswagen in the driveway of an open garage. The neighborhood was quaint and lovely, with signs of children all over.

"I don't wanna go, Sirius!" a child's voice pouted. The man had raven black hair and fathomless grey eyes. He sighed and walked up the stairs, entering a child's room. The bedroom was Quidditch-themed from the ceiling hangings to the bedspread to the toy broomstick and Quidditch balls that lay on the floor.

"Harry," Sirius knelt down, "Don't worry about it, you'll have fun. You need to get dressed, c'mon."

"Sirius, I don't want to go to school!" the boy protested. His emerald green eyes were upset. He was still wearing his Gryffindor pajamas. His brand new glasses were askew on his face and his black hair was ruthlessly messy.

Sirius asked, "Why not?"

"What if I don't like it?"

"What if you do?" Sirius questioned.

"What if I don't?" Harry argued.

Sirius said, "You won't know until you try, Harry."

"I don't wanna try!" the little boy whined. Sirius sighed and went to the dresser to pick out clothes for Harry. Harry had never actually been this stubborn before. Sirius didn't know how to handle it.

In Harry's five years, he hadn't been all that difficult to handle. Sirius, having been proven guilty merely a month after being put into Azkaban, was given full custody of Harry since he was his godfather. Harry called him Sirius, but he was as much of a parent to him as he could be. It was easy to raise him so far. It was simple. Harry had quite a few adults to look up to.

Sirius and Remus were both there, for one. Remus helped as much as he could. Dumbledore was a lingering presence in Harry's life. Of course Minerva McGonagall, Hagrid, Emmeline Vance and the entire Weasley family was there for him. Sirius was friends with a lot of people, all of whom loved the five-year-old boy that was Harry.

"Harry, what are you afraid of if you go to kindergarten with all of the other boys and girls?" Sirius wondered of him.

"What if I don't make friends?" Harry asked quietly.

"You'll have plenty of friends," Sirius assured him.

"Like who?"

"Well I know for a fact that Ron will be there."

Harry raised his head. Sirius, being very close to the Weasley and Prewett families, had continued a relationship with Molly and Arthur Weasley over the years. Harry had bonded well with Ronald Weasley, their youngest son who was Harry's age. They were two peas in a pod.

"Really?"

Sirius nodded, "Absolutely. Neville Longbottom will, too." Though Alice and Frank had been tortured to insanity, Sirius kept in contact with Frank's mother, just to keep up with the family that he had known so well.

Harry sighed and sat on his bed. He said a bit too dramatically, "Okay, I'll go…"

Sirius grinned, "Good. Now get dressed."

After that, Harry came down for breakfast. Sirius poured him cereal and scrambled to look for all his papers. What had he done with his briefcase? He cursed to himself and prayed to Merlin that he hadn't lost those important profiles about those two Dark wizards on the run.

He had always been a good Auror. He just couldn't keep track of everything completely. He was well respected and caught as many wizards as he could, he was a good leader, and he was a great Auror. It was just all the damn paperwork.

He entered the kitchen once again after searching for it everywhere he could think of. He had collected several important papers in his office, but couldn't find his briefcase—or his wand, for that matter. If he had his wand, he would definitely have his briefcase by now.

"Maybe it's in the car," said a male's voice from across the room. Sirius looked up to see his dear friend, Remus Lupin, entering through the kitchen door, "After all, you do always leave it there."

"What about my wand?" Sirius asked without questioning Remus's logic. After all, he was probably correct anyways.

Remus didn't respond, only looked pointedly at the refrigerator. Sirius rushed to it, finding his wand stuck in a tub of butter. He sighed and pulled it out, handing it to Remus so he could clean it off.

"That's awful, Sirius," Remus grimaced, "How'd it get in there?"

"Maybe when I was making my breakfast this morning," Sirius shrugged, "It always ends up in strange places."

He could faintly recall a time when it was in Harry's milk glass, and another when it was being used as a TV antenna when they weren't getting good satellite reception. He didn't even want to think about the time while Harry was potty training and it…

That wasn't very fun.

"You've got to take better care of it," Remus said, handing the now clean wand back to Sirius.

"I do, but I just… I have a five-year-old, I forget sometimes." With that, he waved his wand and muttered, "Accio briefcase."

It appeared before him on the counter, and he put all of his papers in. He checked that he had every paper, every permit, every file and certificate that he needed for his job.

Remus sat next to Harry, who was finishing off the cereal in his bowl, and asked, "You ready for your first day of school, Harry?"

"Nope," Harry answered, popping the P.

Remus frowned, "Well why not?"

"I don't wanna go."

Remus only smiled sympathetically and ruffled the boy's messy hair, "It'll be fine, Harry. You'll make loads of friends, you'll have fun and I'm sure your teacher will be nice as well."

Harry shook his head, "I'm not too sure about that, Moony."

"Oh, you will, I promise."

"If I don't, then you lied," Harry said, "And you shouldn't lie."

"I'm not lying," Remus smiled at the boy and turned to Sirius, "You ready to go?"

Sirius nodded and closed his briefcase, "Yeah, for the most part. Harry's so nervous about his first day, I've been persuading him to try and go all morning. It's been a hassle."

Remus shrugged and said, "Well I promised him he'd have a good time, so I don't think we'll have a problem."

"Good, we better not," Sirius said with a scowl, "I swear, he can be real stubborn at the least opportune moments. He must get it from Lily."

"He definitely gets that from her," Remus agreed.

"One of the few things, seeing as he's just like his father."

"You can't forget his eyes," Remus pointed out.

"Yeah, Lily's eyes. He's also pretty bright—"

"—Not that James was dumb," Remus interjected, getting a chuckled from Sirius.

"Of course not. But he definitely got both of their wit."

Remus smiled and took Harry's empty cereal bowl to the sink. After that, he took Harry upstairs to brush his teeth while Sirius warmed their car up. More times than not Remus and Sirius carpooled to work in the mornings. They worked in the same building, not necessarily the same department, but both in the Auror office. They had the same hours so they decided why not go together.

Only one thing would be changing in the morning now, and that was dropping Harry off at Kindergarten, which was only five minutes from Sirius's home.

They pulled up to the magical elementary school where children of ages five until they were ten went to school for schooling before they went to Hogwarts. They learned basic things here, Muggle things like mathematics, how to read and write, and common knowledge. They learned basic things for their futures, which they would definitely need.

Harry wouldn't walk up to the building since he was too nervous, so Sirius picked him up and carried him with Remus following. They walked inside and greeted the teacher. She was tall and skinny, but very old with white hair in a bun and glasses covering her warm brown eyes. She seemed nice.

"I'm Mrs. Sheffield," she greeted them, "And you are?"

"I'm Sirius Black, and this is my child, Harry Potter."

"It's nice to meet you, Harry," she said.

"You, too," he said, sticking his hand out for her to shake like Sirius had taught him.

She smiled and looked at Remus, then Sirius and then back again. "Well we welcome Harry with an open heart. You're not too late, not all the children have arrived yet."

Sirius nodded and set Harry down. He said, "Harry, do you recognize anybody here?"

He himself recognized several children. He had many friends in the wizarding world who all had planned with him to send their kids to that school. Even the people he wasn't friends with sent their kids here and he knew it. He saw children of his friends, children of his family and children of his enemies.

Harry nodded and pointed to a redheaded boy playing with a set of magical stuffed dragons on the carpet. Ronald Weasley. Sirius was good friends with the Weasley family still and they helped him out from time to time with Harry. Harry had become good friends with their son Ron, who was his age.

"Go say hi to Ron. I'm sure he'll want you to play with him," Sirius suggested. Harry ran over and smiled at Ron, who greeted him back. He gave Harry a red dragon to use and Harry began to play along just as animatedly.

Mrs. Sheffield said, "Looks like your son already has some friends here."

"We know a lot of people," Remus said and introduced himself, "Remus Lupin."

"It's nice to meet you both. What a cute little family you've made with Harry here. If you don't mind me asking, did you adopt him?"

"No, he's the son of a good friend of ours who passed away," Sirius answered. He hadn't paid much attention to anything else she'd said, but Remus caught something. He kept quiet though.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. You both have taken him in nicely. He's well mannered."

"Well actually it was I who took him in, since I'm his godfather," Sirius said, "Remus has helped immensely though. You've no idea how much."

"Well at least Harry still has two parents to look up to, if not a mother."

Remus interjected, "Well actually, he has plenty of adult female figures to look up to, most notably my girlfriend, Marlene."

"Your girlfriend? Oh dear, I thought… Never mind, what a tizzy."

Sirius raised one eyebrow, "Did you think we were homosexual?"

"Sirius and I have been good friends since childhood, but we aren't partners," Remus said, "We're just good friends."

"I—" she seemed very embarrassed. Her face was red and she was avoiding eye contact, "Well I'm sorry for assuming—"

"It's okay, we take no offense," Remus spoke.

"Well, I have to get the class in order now. It was nice to meet you, and Harry too."

They waved to Harry and then left to go to their jobs.

XXX

"Sirius, what are these?" Sirius looked up. He had been sitting in the living room, reading the paper that Sunday morning. Harry had only been in school for a week and contrary to his former beliefs, he loved it.

Harry had walked in, holding a black shoebox. Sirius knew exactly what was inside of it.

"Where'd you get that?" Sirius asked quickly. He set aside the paper and went over to Harry.

"I was looking in your office," he said bashfully. He didn't answer Sirius's question of why. "Why is there a watch in here?"

He held up a watch. It had a black leather strap and a white gold dial. It was beautiful, and looked brand new. It looked as new as the day he had gotten it. It practically was, having been in that box for all these years since Sirius and Olivia broke up.

Memories of their six month anniversary flooded his mind. What followed the anniversary came afterwards, bringing him sorrow and regret.

No going back now…

Sirius took the box from Harry gently but not before Harry saw the rest of the contents of the box. There were only a few things but they including the watch, one of Olivia's Jane Eyre books and about a dozen pictures of them together, smiling, laughing, having fun.

"Who's that woman in those pictures?" Harry asked, "She's pretty."

"She's no one," Sirius answered, closing the box, "No one…"

"What about the book?"

"What about it?"

"What's it called?"

Sirius hesitated, "…Jane Eyre."

"Will you read it to me?"

Sirius shook his head, not smiling. His eyes were watering and he had to get out of there quick, "No… It's a grown-up book."

With that, he disappeared into his office quickly and locked the door. In there, he mulled over the pictures, the book and the watch. Then, he put it back into the drawer it was previously in and made sure to lock it tight, hoping to never open the drawer again.