Author's note: Wow, thanks so much for the reviews. I really, really appreciated them. Please do keep them coming. To prevent confusion I have called Sirius; Sirius when he is in human form and Padfoot when he is in dog form. At least I hope that prevents confusion, knowing me it just complicates things!

Check out Graciella Bellanotte-Diadoro's awesome fic; It Keeps You Runnin' which is a brilliant read!

Chapter 2

A bad nights sleep under the Dursleys' old shed had done nothing to improve Sirius' temper. Even as Padfoot the shed had been too small for him and now his back ached worse than ever from being so cramped.

His temper was raised even more when a deafening scream made his ears ring, his poor over-sensitive dog ears which his paws couldn't reach to cover. He had to fight the urge to turn back into human form just to save his hearing.

"I WANT AN ICE CREAM NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A sugar-sweet yet slightly exasperated voice floated to Padfoot's, now damaged, ears.

"But Diddikins, you can have an ice cream at the park." Diddikins? Padfoot thought with a doggy smirk rather an unusual nickname.

"I WANT AN ICE CREAM NOW AAANNND AT THE PARK, GET ME ONE NOW!!!!"

Personally, Padfoot knew exactly what the boy wanted, no…needed but it did not involve an ice cream. He closed his eyes tightly Please Merlin let that not be Harry. He didn't see how the nickname Diddikins derived from Harry but he had no idea of the Dursleys' kid's name so for all he knew it could be either.

Sirius Black had no experience of children, not since he had been one anyway, and he had even less experience of a child having a tantrum, he would have been Avada Kedavra-ed if he had even thought about having one when he was young and so he didn't even have his own childhood to work with. Sirius Black also had very little patience, how would he deal with Harry if he was like that?

He didn't have to suffer long though as a few seconds later a blonde-haired whale waddled into view. Definitely not Harry. Relief flooded Padfoot's body as he stretched more leisurely across the ground and waited for his godson to come into view.

However, it was a woman who came to his attention next. Well, Padfoot found it smelt of the flowery fragrance that women normally emit yet she looked more of a mixed breed between woman and horse.

A fat man tottered after them, his clothes could have fitted about five of Sirius even without his current emaciated state and yet they strained across the man's broad chest. They must be the whale's parents, Padfoot realised, surely his godson would be trailing after them next, perhaps he was embarrassed to be seen with the bellowing whale, a horse women who kept squealing "But, Diddikins!" And a man who looked like he had swallowed a whole shop full of beach balls.

Padfoot smirked, his godson would come out once his relatives had got a good way in front of him, then he could pretend he wasn't with them; it's what James would have done.

But even after the, rather large, forms of the Dursleys had long disappeared from view no other child had left the house. Padfoot frowned as well as a dog could, Harry was surely far too young to be left by himself. He surveyed the area for nosy neighbours before crawling out from under the shed and running towards the house, he was going to see exactly where his godson was!

He leant hard against the door but it remained stubbornly closed, obviously the Dursleys hadn't been quite so frazzled at their son's tantrum to forget to lock the door. He growled, and then began to circle around the house, looking for an entrance. There wasn't a cat flap, and the windows weren't open except…

A slow wolfy grin spread across Padfoot's face, the tiny ventilating window besides the back door was open. He raced towards it and, after a quick look-around, changed into Sirius. The ex-convict swept his dirty hair out of his face and slid one grubby hand through the tiny window, it only just fitted. He slid his arm in as far as it would allow and bent it around towards the door, he wriggled his fingers around on the smooth wood looking for the…ha, he had got it. The key was gripped in his shaky fingers and he gave a little twist, slightly alarmed at how much effort he had to put in because of his weakened muscles.

The door swung open and Sirius quickly bounded inside, regaining some energy in his triumph. He had an urge to yell out for his godson but he knew that that might scare him, he didn't want to do anything rash. He just needed to look in at him and check he was okay and was being treated properly and then…Sirius swallowed, and then he would have to see how far he got.

His godson was not in the kitchen, or in the lounge although the fellivision (is that what muggles called them? Sirius couldn't really remember. Muggle Studies was a long time ago.) was blaring loudly. Harry was not downstairs.

The stairs creaked loudly as he made his way up, Sirius was sure he heard a scared gasp and froze but, although he listened for a number of minutes, he never heard another sound. Upstairs there was a bathroom, vacant, a master bedroom, so pristinely clean Sirius wrinkled his nose, and two big rooms stuffed to the rafters with all manner of toys and gadgets.

Sirius smiled, one room must be the Dursley kid's and one must be Harry's. He couldn't really work out which was which though. With a shake he returned to his task, quickly realising that this was the last room in the house. Where was Harry?

He could have been at a friend's house or on a school trip or anywhere but Sirius just had a feeling that it wasn't. He knew Harry was somewhere in the house, he could feel it; but where?

If only Harry would make a noise, though after all the shouting the Dursley brat had done Sirius doubted he would hear him with his damaged ears.

Hearing! It struck Sirius suddenly, what he needed was extremely good hearing and…sense of smell! If he changed into Padfoot he could smell where Harry was!

Before he had even finished that train of thought he was Padfoot again. He took a big sniff of the air, he could smell cleaning detergent extremely strongly. He sneezed before attempting to smell the air again, slightly more cautiously this time.

He could vaguely make out the smell of a human, it must be coming from downstairs.

It was as the big black dog was bounding down the stairs that the smell hit him strongly, Harry was very close by. Padfoot froze, somewhat confused. When he walked away from the stairs, the smell weakened. It was at it's strongest when he was standing right at the bottom of the stairs, but Harry wasn't lying on the stairs!

His sense of smell had never let him down before but if he was right then Harry was in the middle of the stairs…unless…Padfoot ran over to the place where he knew some muggles had cupboards under the stairs, yes! The smell was coming from in there. He eyed the big padlock with growing apprehension and anger, just what had the whales been doing to his Harry?

Wasting no time, he slipped back into his human form and studied the lock. He didn't have his wand and had never performed much magic without it. Alohomora was supposed to be extremely hard to pull off wandlessly but Sirius had never let anything stand in the way of what he wanted before.

"Alohomora!" Sirius said confidently, pointing at the lock. He was most gratified to see it spring open as the blast of green light hit it.

Now to see his godson. He leant down hesitantly, extremely afraid now that the time had come.

What if Harry hated him?

What if he was as awfully behaved as his cousin?

What if it was too painful to see him?

What if Harry was so well guarded that he had wards so aurors came the second Sirius touched him?

What if Harry knew all about magic and called the Dementors on him himself, could a five year old do that??

What if Harry DIDN'T know about magic?

What if, as the padlock indicated, his godson really was being mistreated. What could a convict do?

Would James and Lily want this? Want him with their child?

He nearly scoffed as the last thought ran through his head, of course they did!

Sirius Black, the brave Gryffindor, pulled the cupboard door all the way open as if it was going to bite him and then looked inside with all the hesitancy one would when about to be fed to lions.

Sirius Black's heart stopped at the sight that met his eyes. A small child was curled up in a little ball, one skinny arm wrapped around a moth-eaten stag that Sirius remembered buying the boy himself when he was just a baby.

Messy black hair flopped over the scar that Sirius knew was hiding beneath it. He smiled softly as the boy shifted slightly and he saw the boy's tiny thumb was in his mouth and he was sucking it unconsciously. He must have gasped with pleasure as the boy's beautiful emerald orbs suddenly snapped into view and pierced Sirius' slate grey eyes in terror.

"Please don't hurt me." Harry whispered, causing Sirius' heart wrenched painfully but he couldn't stop a small smile creeping onto his face… because Sirius Black had found his godson.