Disclaimer: If I did own the wonderful world of Hogwarts, I would have never killed out the good people. Just Voldemort, because he is one really bad dude. Oh, yeah, and then Wormtail and Bellatrix because they're purely evil.

A/N: Thanks to my beta, Miles333.

Revised as of Junes 17th 2013.

Chapter One

Sirius Orion Black had never been a patient man. Ever. He figured that if he had been, life would be dull and slow and very boring. And really, what fun would that be?

Cooking the Muggle way, for instance, was one of those things that made his impatience grow. Even after twelve years, he had never quite gotten the hang of cooking without magic. Actually, he had never gotten the cooking part in general but that was beside the point. Anyway, that was why, back in the old days, before you know, everything went to hell, he had usually bummed off his friends for various meals.

Why couldn't Remus do this? He furrowed his brows and stared at the cookbook, in deep thought as he read the neatly printed words. It couldn't be that hard to cook a simple cake, could it?

That was obviously a trick question. And that was probably why Remus made Sirius do that.

He muttered something unsavory under his breath, carefully re-reading the directions which felt like at least the sixtith time. How could you put an egg to it? That didn't make any sense. Did you break it or just put it in whole? He thought you would break it, but it just said to –

"Having trouble, Padfoot?" He jumped, scowling as he dropped the egg into the gooey mess of brown batter.

"Lupin," Sirius snarled, eyeing the other man with annoyance before turning back to the egg situation. He was not going to reach into that for a stupid egg.

"Sirius, what are you trying to do?" Remus Lupin asked, tone innocent, and obviously amused, walking over to stand by him. He glanced down at the bowl, expression seeming to waver between worry and amusement.

"Cake," Sirius replied shortly, brows creasing. "It's Harry's thirteenth, as you know." He gave a pointed look at the other man, who was grinning at Sirius' annoyed gaze.

"Cake? Looks to me more like a mess," Lupin announced after a moment, taking a whiff of the mixture before giving a grimace. "Maybe we should just buy a cake from one of the stores."

Before Sirius knew it, he broke out into a laugh. "Can you believe this, Moony? Two grown wizards who I have to say can be pretty bloody powerful talking about getting a cake from a Muggle store." Abruptly, the dog Animagus became serious, leaning heavily against the kitchen counter.

"I think it's time, Remus."

Remus pressed his lips into a thin line and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his tan coat, his eyes and expression sad. "Its high-time Harry learns the truth, but…" He trailed off, not sure how to put what was on his mind into words, his eyes saying it all though.

"I know, Moony, I know," Sirius said, pushing himself off the counter. He did know. Oh, how he knew. "I don't want to tell him yet but I've already noticed that his magic's flaring up, and I know you've noticed too. And he's been having more and more nightmares recently." He grimaced, remembering the terrified screams that had been waking him up most every night for the last several months. "We have charms up but somebody's going to notice something, sooner or later."

Lupin nodded grimly, patting his friend on the shoulder. "We'll do it tonight. We don't want to ruin his birthday." With that the werewolf turned around and started to walk out of the kitchen door.

"Where are you going?" Sirius called, frowning as he turned back to the cake. What was he supposed to do with this?

"I've got things to do. Have to get a cake, for one thing. And I need to get a couple of other things ready for tonight," Remus said, waving a hand dismissively. "Don't blow up the house while I'm gone." He left and Sirius gave a puzzled frown. Tempted to using the bond before deciding against it, he turned to look back at the gooey mess that was supposed to be cake better.

"Hey, Uncle Sirius." Sirius was reaching for his wand out of instinct before realising that it wasn't an enemy, that it was just his godson. He forced himself to relax a little as he turned around.

"Feel any older, Harry?"

The freshly turned thirteen-year-old smiled a little, brushing a piece of shaggy brown hair from his startlingly bright emerald eyes. "Not really, Sirius." Sirius returned the smile.

"Good. That means you're normal." Sirius offered a cheeky grin andus forced himself not to emphasize the "normal" part. All this talk about finally telling Harry the truth was making him a bit on edge.

Harry chuckled, looking over Sirius' shoulder at the cake that his godfather had been making. His eyes widened, his expression terribly disgusted.

"Sirius, what's that?"

Sirius gave a snort, straightening. "Well, truthfully? It's your cake." He couldn't help but laugh at the look of dread that flashed upon the teen's face as he stared at the goopy dark brown puddle.

"Well, it was," Sirius continued, smirking slightly. "But, since it doesn't look that…you know…eatable, Remus is on his way to get a cake." And who knows what else. Harry looked relieved at this new bit of information.

"Good," Harry replied. "Not that I doubt your cooking skills or anything…" He gave Sirius an innocent look that reminded him of James. His throat suddenly felt tight.

He cleared it. "Well since today is your birthday, I won't comment on that, okay?" Sirius grimaced one more time at the brown mess before walking over to the white rubbish bin. Man, was that ever gross looking. He watched as it slowly dripped into the bin.

His mind strayed to another brown mess that had happened in his third year of potions at Hogwarts. Oh, a good time, a good time that had been. He didn't remember what he was trying to make at the time but James had dared him to do something to it, put some root in it or something and by the time it was all said and done, it ended up being brown, pasty, and disgusting.

It had been hilarious. Expect when it had spontaneously decided to blow up. He had had to go to visit Poppy Pomfrey, the medi-witch, for three weeks. To see his Potions teacher's look of disbelief and shook had been completely worth it though. Good old Slughorn. He had never really liked that guy.

"–Sirius?" He blinked, startled before turning back to his very amused godson.

"…What?"

Harry shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Never mind. Where were you?"

Sirius shook his head once more then realized the former cake batter had finished dribbling into the rubbish some time ago. He made a look of disgust before walking back to the sink. "Well, I was thinking, actually…"

"Wait, you were thinking?" Harry interrupted, eyebrows rising with disbelief.

Sirius gave a mock hurt look. "Well, fine then. Insult my intelligence, see what I care." He rinsed the bowl before placing it half-heartedly in the sink. He would deal with that later. Actually, Lupin would deal with it later. He leaned against the counter as he gave Harry a very amused look.

Harry laughed, folding his arms. "Sorry. But, really. What were you thinking? You zoned out on me."

Sirius shrugged, wiping his wet hands on a towel. "Actually, I was thinking about my school days. Oh, those were the days..." He trailed off, recalling the days when it had been just James, him, Lily, Lupin and…he frowned, glancing down at his hands. He didn't want think about them. That was in the past. A long time ago. But even as he told himself that, he knew he could never move on. Not really.

"Yeah?"

Sirius shrugged, purposefully ignoring Harry's stare, studying the floor tile for a moment. "Oh never mind, you probably won't want to be bored out of your mind while I recall my school days." He paused; brow furrowing as he racked his mind for something else to talk about, pulling his eyes from the floor and going up to Harry's face. "That reminds me, where do you want to go out tonight?" Every year, they went out to celebrate their birthdays. An attempt at normalcy.

Harry frowned, gaze fixing on a spot on the tiled floor, the same spot that Sirius had been eariler looking at. "I haven't really thought about it yet."

Sirius snickered, straightening. "How about this. If you finish up your history whatever that Remus gave you, we'll go to that new cafe downtown."

Harry grinned, turning towards the door. "Sure. Just don't let him hear you call his assignments "history whatever". He'll have a cow."

Sirius chuckled, before pushing himself off the counter. "Probably not a good idea if that happened. Now scat. The sooner you get that done, the sooner we can eat." Harry laughed, leaving the kitchen. Sirius hoped that he actually did his history assignment. Harry had a tendency of getting distracted. Another thing he got from James. But in this case, it wasn't a girl distracting him. Thank Merlin.

Which reminded him, he needed to ask Lupin when it would be the best time to sit down with Harry and talk to him about the other sex. Oh, that was going to be fun.

Sirius snickered at the thought of before becoming serious, his lips together in a thin line.

He halfheartedly scratched his forehead, scowling to no one. How could he be so stupid at times? He needed to be on guard every second, not losing himself in normal Muggle life like he was now. He sighed, shoulders slumping, losing the scowl. While Harry was sleeping tonight, he needed to work on something. He needed to sharpen up on his magic, needed to be ready in every way possible so he could protect Harry the best way he could possibly. And Lupin. He would always protect him, even if he knew that Remus could take care of himself fairly well.

"How could you, Wormtail?" Sirius snarled, barely refraining from throwing himself at the rat Animagus and killing him right then and there, his body shaking. "They were our best friends. We were a family. I thought that meant something to you?"

Sirius pulled himself out of the memory and back into the reality of the kitchen. The memories would always plague him, no matter how much time passed.

A sharp knock echoed on the front door and Sirius froze, a heavy feeling settling in his stomach, though he had no idea why.

"I'm sure it's nothing," he said, but despite that reassurance, he still kept a hand on his wand which was tucked into one of his shirt sleeved as he walked to the door. "Probably some Muggle trying to sale something."

He unhooked the large deadbolt before pulling back the wooden door.

A man that Sirius knew quite well was standing on the outside, dressed in black robes, hair a mess of black grease.

Of all the people, it just had to be him. Of course it did.

Sirius felt his face lose its color and his heart beat so hard against his chest he thought it would crack his ribs. He swallowed roughly, his throat suddenly feeling very dry.

His mouth curled into a scowl. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't hex you right now, Snivellus? Because I really want to."