Chapter 2

6 months later...

Sirius Black awoke to the sound of his daughters cries. He rolled over and hauled himself out of bed, stumbling into his daughters room with her heartbroken cries ringing in his ears. He sighed softly to himself as he picked her up; this had been a reccuring problem for the past few months. Every night without fail for the past six months she had woken up crying heartbroken tears that no amount of comfort could soothe. He rocked the small girl from side to side, wishing his wife could be here to tell him what he was doing wrong, how to soothe their heartbroken daughter. When she began to quieten and pull his hair he looked down in surprise; she had never stopped this quickly before. As his eyes met hers and he saw the sadness shining in them, his heart broke. Desperate to soothe his daughters pain he held her close and stroked her soft black hair hoping to bring her some comfort but she pushed his hands away and pulled on his hair more insistently, so he looked down agan, realising she wanted to say something ''Daddy, Harry really hurt.''

Sirius sat down heavilly on the armchair in the lounge, thinking about his wife. She had always been the expert on emotional stuff. It just wasnt his thing. And now Sirius was completely at sea. His two and a half year old daughter had just told him that his godson, who was thousands of miles away, was in pain. That everytime she cried her heartbroken cries it was because Harry was alone and scared. He knew she wasnt lying, he had used his somewhat limited skill at legillimency to see his daughters thoughts. There hadn't been much to see, she was only two and a half after all, but she knew Harry was hurt. She didn't know how she knew but she did and that was why she'd been crying, because her friend was upset and she couldnt help. Sirius had no clue as to how she was doing it but he knew she was, in fact, now he thought about it, he could remember other times when his daughter had cried for seemingly no reason whilst calling out for Harry. There had been an incident a few months before when Harry had fallen off his toy broomstick when he was playing with James. She'd screamed her lungs out for no apparent reason, crying for Harry, and hadn't stopped until they had placed her next to Harry, at which point both children had immeadiately stopped crying and hugged each other tightly. They had laughed it off at the time but Sirius began to wonder, was there some kind of bond between the two children, and, if there was and Harry really was in trouble, then what could be do about it. He had left Harry in Surrey with his aunt and uncle knowing he needed the protection Dumbledore had designed, but that had been six months ago. The situation in England would be calmer now and Harry should be safe with him.

He had chosen to hide out on Black Isle. The island had been left to him by his uncle Alphard and as nice as he had been, he was the most paranoid man Sirius had ever met. The place was practically a fortress and no one else knew it existed, let alone that he had inherited it. There was no where safer to raise the most famous boy in the wizarding world. But the question was, would he be able to get to the child in the first place?

3 days later...

Sirius Black was not normally a violent man. He was not a patient man by any means, but he liked to think he was at least able to engage his brain before attempting to commit violent acts of murder. Well, there had been the incident with Wormtail but there had been extenuating circumstances such as finding his two best friends dead in their home because Peter was a cowardly traitor. But usually he had a resonable amount of control over his temper, it had been beaten into him in Auror training that you couldn't allow your temper to cloud your judgement or you could end up costing someone their life. But after watching the way Harry was treated by his so called family, Sirius was ready to throw logic out the window and become the mass murderer the wizarding world accused him of being. He had met Petunia Dursley only once before. Lily had sent her a letter inviting her to hers and James' wedding only to have it sent back unopened. She had been in tears for hours at the thought of her own sister not coming to her wedding, especially after their parents had died that summer. James had been so furious with the women he had gone to see her to find out why exactly she was refusing to come, and had asked Sirius and Remus to come as well to prevent him from doing something he would regret. The ten minutes he had spent in her presence had probably been the worst ten minutes of his life. The woman had sat there and spewed vitriol about how Lily was a good for nothing freak who would amount to nothing, and had Sirius not had a specific rule about not hitting women he would probably have punched her. Seeing the way she was treating Harry now tested him to the limits of his self control, and had it not been for his daughter sitting patiently on the grass behind the bush the were hiding in, he would have said to hell with restraint and hexed the woman into oblivion.

That night as the lights finally went out in the house Sirius picked up his daughter and made his way to the back door of the house. He knew the door would be locked and not wanting to alert the wrong people to his presence at the house he decided to pick the lock the muggle way. It was slower but safer. Silently he crept into the dark house and approached the cupboard under the stairs. He had heard them saying this was where he slept and seeing the locks on the door he knew it must be true. He motioned for Cassie to stay quiet and began to pick the lock before easing the door open to reveal his sleeping godson.

The boy truly was a pitiful site. He was very thin wearing clothes that were far to big making him look even thinner than he really was. He slept on the floor with a thin moth eaten blanket that he remembered Harry had been wrapped in when he pulled him from the wreckage of the house in Godric's Hollow. Barely containing his fury at the way an innocent child had been treated, and promising himself he would make Petunia pay for the way she had treated her sisters only child, he picked up the small boy and cradled him to his chest, careful not to wake him. He manovered deftly out of the small cupboard and closed the door behind him, careful to put everything back the way it had been. There would be no point alerting them to the boys absence too soon, he still had to make it out of the country with two small children in tow after all. He left the house quietly and gestured for Cassie to follow him as he carried Harry. She was very quiet for which he was glad. He had explained earlier that it was important for them to stay quiet but wasnt sure how well she had understood, after all how do you explain to a two year old that she needs to be quiet so he can kidnap her best freind from his evil relatives? Although judging by the serious expression on the normally cheerful childs face he was beginning to think she may have understood after all. She hadn't said a word and remained silent as he walked back to the bush the had beed hiding behind earlier. Taking a furtive glance around the street to make sure no one could see them he mounted the broom, securing Harry in his arms as he did so and grabbed Cassie securing her on the broom in front of him before kicking of the ground. knowing nothing would be the same again and never looking back at the hateful place he had rescued Harry from as he flew off into the night.