There were people who thought that Sirius Black was an open book, unable to hide anything, not his anger, his hatred, nor his love and affection. Everyone thought they knew him, they thought it was hard not to since he wore his heart on his sleeve and that was why so many people were surprised when he betrayed the Potters. They had believed it yes, he did come from that terrible family after all, the one that churned out the worst of those dark wizards but it had been shocking to many.

Sirius Black, they thought, was simply incapable of keeping secrets.

They were wrong of course, in many aspects, but that was one particularly wrong. Sirius Black had plenty of secrets. It was in fact a testament to how close he kept them that no one even realised he had any. When no one thought you had anything to hide, they didn't bother looking for it.

It was why he had suggested making Pettigrew their secret keeper. He had forgotten though, how easily people betrayed secrets that didn't involve them. There was nothing he regretted more than that one decision of his. If he hadn't done that, maybe James and Lily would still be alive, Harry wouldn't be an orphan, Remus wouldn't be so damn dead on the inside, like he'd been kissed by a Dementor.

So many maybes.

Now his godson had pushed him down a pipe into a place not even Sirius had known of, one that smelt of dank and rot. A few air-clearing charms were first and then Sirius stepped forward cautiously.

This was a place so well hidden that Harry had thought it was safe for him to hide there under the noses of those who would look for him, against everything Dumbledore had told him as was evident from the girl's squawking when Harry had changed their plans.

A Lumos triggered something in the chamber and torches that glowed an oddly green light suddenly lighted it up. Sirius followed their trail carefully only to flatten himself against a wall when something came into view. The lights flickered gently lighting up the scales of that enormous snake and when it did not move for several minutes, not even in a gentle rise to indicate its life, Sirius felt safe enough to come closer.

A basilisk. A HUGE basilisk, it's eyes torn by talon marks and he recalled the whispers he had heard from the students once and realised just where Harry had put him.

The Chamber of Secrets.

He recalled then, the hissing that Harry had done to open the way up and realised just how safe this place was. Only Harry himself would be able to get in here.

For the first time in years, Sirius was safe. The cold stone made for an uncomfortable bed but knowing that he wouldn't have to sleep with an eye half open more than made up for it and within seconds, he was curled up fast asleep.

His godson was a bit of a surprise to Sirius, had been since he'd first seen him outside Petunia's house. When he'd stormed out of the house with his trunk in tow Sirius had been surprised. It was rather reminiscent of how he'd left Grimmauld Place when he was sixteen. Harry had been shaking as well although in his case it was probably because of anger and not because of Crucios cast upon him like it had been with Sirius.

Sirius didn't like that. He wouldn't wish his upbringing on Snape, let alone his own godson.

Not that his career at Hogwarts seemed better. It had taken a little over three hours but Harry had finally finished telling him all about his first two years in Hogwarts.

What in the hell was going on in the school? When Sirius was a student things had been pretty bad, Voldemort was slowly but surely taking over and the Slytherins he was 'recruiting' engaged in utterly vile behaviour and dabbled in the Dark Arts to prove their loyalty and it was still better than what Harry had experienced.

A Cerberus, a dragon, a dark lord, and that the Mirror of Erised all in his first year, how did this happen under Dumbledore's nose? At the very least though, it proved that Harry was right in keeping Sirius here. Clearly, Dumbledore didn't keep a close eye on the school and the ministry wouldn't dare step into Dumbledore's territory even if he was doing a shit job of keeping it safe.

"Do you trust me Harry?" Sirius asked even though he knew the answer to that already. Part of him wondered though, with how quickly Harry had agreed to live with him only minutes after finding out that he wasn't a mass murderer.

His hesitation was answer enough and Sirius was uncontrollably proud of that.

"I know you're innocent of your crimes." He answered after a minute of deliberation. "I trust you to want what's best for me."

"But not for me to do it." Sirius completed for him. It didn't sting quite as badly as he thought it would.

"I don't know where I am on your list of priorities. And I get the feeling you want to be out there hunting down Pettigrew more than you want to play house with me." Harry sighed. "And to be honest I don't like the idea of that rat out there either so I don't blame you for it. Voldemort keeps trying to kill me every year. I don't like thinking about what will happen when Pettigrew finds him."

Sirius frowned at that. Harry said it like it was foregone, an absolute certainty. "Why do you think he'd do that?"

"In my divination exam Trelawney kind of went into a weird trance. She said that the one who betrayed his friends would break free and reunite with his master. At first I thought it was all just rot but then Pettigrew escaped and-"

"A prophecy?" That wasn't good. He didn't know the exact details but Sirius knew that it was a prophecy that had sent the Potters into hiding. "That's not good."

"Why not?"

Sirius debated telling Harry the truth. It wasn't the type of thing he wanted a thirteen year old to know, not when it concerned his parents' murders. But it concerned his parents' murder and the failed attempt on his own life. Didn't he deserve to know? Dumbledore, McGonagall, his relatives, they'd all kept things from him. How had that worked out? Harry hadn't even known to watch his back when he'd come to Hogwarts and look how that turned out.

"Harry what I'm about to tell you, take it with a grain of salt okay? I've only heard this from others myself don't even know how true it is but...there was some prophecy of some kind. It was supposed to be about You-Know-Who's defeat and he learnt about it. It was why your family and the Longbottoms went into hiding and why he came after them."

Harry mouth dropped open but snapped shut just as quickly. Sirius could practically see him thinking about it what he'd been told, not good thoughts if the grinding of his teeth and lines of muscle appearing in his neck as he tensed were anything to go by.

"Not my family," He said in a flat tone and Sirius was afraid of what he would say next, "-me."

"What?"

"The Dementors. When they get near I can hear them dying, I can hear Voldemort laughing, I see the green light."He hissed and Sirius froze. He had his fair share of bad memories and none of them came close to this. Harry's first memory and it was of murder. "He told Mum to step aside. He didn't want to kill them, he wanted to kill me."