Last time~

"Are you really?" Snape challenged, standing up.

Sirius got to his feet too, stomach twisting.

"Give me one good reason, Black," Snape sneered. "Not to call the Aurors right now."

Chapter 4

Jack the Butterfly, and Other Important Happenings

"What?" was Sirius' eloquent reply.

Snape sneered. "Sharp as ever, aren't you, Black?" he scoffed. "I'll admit you had effective glamours, but you still foolishly gave yourself away. Gryffindors do tend to lack subtly and tact."

"Hey!" Sirius said, suitably affronted on his house's behalf.

Snape snorted. "And what about Evan Harrison?" he continued. "How very original, Mr. White."

Sirius cringed. "Okay, but I was trying to pick something he'd remember, and I thought mine was ironic. And in my defense, anyone else wouldn't have made the connection."

"And yet, here you are," Snape said smugly.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't exactly change our fake names mid-conversation," Sirius grumbled. "And you trying saying no to him when he wants to play with the only friend he's ever had his age."

"And then, it seemed, you were doomed," Snape said, smirking triumphantly. "They might even give you the Dementor's Kiss for this. Kidnapping the brother of the Boy-Who-Lived, Potter might even have your head for this."

Sirius thought Snape sounded far too happy about that. "I meant what I said when we bumped into each other at Diagon Alley," Sirius growled. "Harry was living with Petunia."

Snape made a vaguely disgusted face.

"And she married a rotten man named Dursley and had a bloated kid named Dudley and they all got together and treated Harry like dirt," Sirius growled. "He lived in a cupboard under the stairs and spent all his time essentially working like a house elf."

"Why would you care, Black," Snape scoffed. "Didn't you b—"

"UNCLE SEV!" Draco's cry cut through the thick curtain of tension, and he and Harry came hurtling over to them.

Both men glared at each other for a moment before turning to the two boys.

"What is it Draco?"

Draco glanced at Harry who gave him and encouraging nod. Taking a deep breath, Draco lifted his enclosed hands up to the adults and slowly opened them. "This is Jack," Draco said solemnly, referring to the black and orange butterfly with a torn wing that was twitching in his hands. "His wing's broken, Uncle Sev."

"Can you fix it?" Harry asked, hope shining in his big green eyes. "He might die if he can't fly."

Sirius had a hard time withholding a chuckle, despite the seriousness of his and Harry's situation. One moment Snape was ready to turn him in, the next it was literally butterflies. Snape himself almost looked as if he'd been Confunded by the abrupt turn of events.

"How do you know it's a boy?" Sirius asked while Snape continued to gape.

"He looks like a boy," Harry said confidently.

"Of course he does," Sirius said, looking at the butterfly. It looked like any other butterfly Sirius had ever seen and, to be perfectly honest, he hadn't the slightest clue how to tell if it was male or female.

"Draco," Snape said smoothly, regaining his composure. "Do you suppose best friends lie to one another?"

Sirius stomach dropped again, and he glared at Snape. Was he really going to ruin two children's friendship just like that? He almost intervened when Draco answered.

"Oh no, Uncle Sev," Draco said, shaking his head. "Not at all. Evan and I talked about it. We decided best friend don't ever lie or keep secrets from each other unless it's to protect them."

That… was actually quite impressive, Sirius decided. He didn't know when they'd talked about it, but they had obviously put some thought into it, more than you would expect from a pair of seven year-olds.

Snape ignored the last little clause and went on, "Then you are aware, Draco, that Evan's name isn't actually 'Evan'?"

"Of course," Draco sniffed, as if it were preposterous he wouldn't know.

Sirius jaw dropped and he stared at Harry, who only shrugged unabashedly.

"Best friends also keep each other's secrets," Draco said importantly. "I wasn't going to tell anyone, Mr. Black, that didn't already know. Harry made me promise."

Sirius glanced over at Snape who seemed equally floored.

"But…" Snape trailed off a moment before pulling himself together. "You do know that Sirius Black" – here he jabbed a finger at Sirius – "is a mass murderer who betrayed his best friend got his best friend's wife killed, right?"

"Harry says Sirius didn't do it," Draco said, like that settled everything.

Snape turned a hard eye on Harry. "And how do you know that?"

"Sirius said he didn't do it," Harry answered.

Snape looked ready to burst an artery or something. "And why," he said through gritted teeth, "would you believe a criminal?"

"Well, he's not a criminal," Harry said factually. "And he doesn't lie."

"Except to people about his name and yours?" he challenged the seven year-old.

Said seven year-old rolled his eyes and replied somewhat impatiently, "That's just code so people who think Sirius is a liar don't arrest us and send me back to the Dursleys'. Can we please get back to Jack now? He's really hurt."

"Can you give him a healing potion or something?" Draco asked.

"Or is there a spell we can use?" Harry added.

"Does regular stuff work on butterflies?" Draco asked.

"Will you need to make something special?" said Harry. "How long will it take?"

"Jack needs to be able to fly," Draco said.

"Yeah, he could die if he can't," Harry added seriously.

"I know I'd die if I could never fly again," Draco proclaimed dramatically.

"Maybe if we gave him something to eat or drink he'd be okay for awhile," Harry suggested. "Until his wing is all healed."

"Yeah, what do butterflies eat?" Draco wondered.

"Um, flowers?" Harry tried.

"Not flowers, just the insides," Draco said.

Sirius cleared his throat. "Uh, you know, usually kids ask before they keep the pet."

"Of course we're keeping him!" Draco exclaimed.

"And he's not a pet," Harry corrected. "Jack is an independent butterfly who can think for himself."

Sirius held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay."

"Come on, Harry," Draco said, turning away. "Let's see if he'll drink some water."

And with that, the two boys started running for the house, Draco very careful about the butterfly in his hands.

Sirius and Snape looked at each other somewhat awkwardly. Their dramatic angry moment had sort of been ruined by Jack the butterfly and the two boys who believed that Jack the butterfly was far more important than any crime Sirius had or hadn't committed, Voldemort, and Snape's threats combined.

"So, er, I can tell you what really happened."

"Under veritaserum."

"Fine."

"We should probably clean up the picnic."

And so went the weirdest, most awkward afternoon Sirius had ever had. He and Snape gathered up the leftover lunch, checkered blanket, and basket and made their way back to Spinner's End—again in awkward silence. Not even angry silence, all thanks to Draco and Harry the best friends and Jack the not-pet, just… awkward. Sirius really didn't have another adjective for it, so 'awkward' kept knocking around in his brain the whole time.

When they got back to the house, the first thing they did was tend to Jack the butterfly. Draco and Harry set out a little water for Jack, watching in fascination as the insect slurped it up through its straw. The fascination lasted for about a minute before Draco looked up and said, "So, what potions does he need?"

Snape scowled. "I don't think SkeleGrow is going to repair a butterfly wing."

"Can you look in your books for something?" Harry suggested. "You do have a lot of them."

Rolling his eyes, Snape snapped, "I hardly think anyone cared enough about butterflies, insects which live less than a year, to create a potion that could heal them."

Both boys gave him such wounded, heartfelt looks that even Snape had the decency to look a little bit ashamed.

"We should get some books on butterflies too," Harry said.

Sirius grimaced. "What do you need books for?"

"Do you know anything about butterflies?" Harry asked, sounding entirely too much like Draco for Sirius to be comfortable.

"Well… no," Sirius admitted.

"Is there a library around here somewhere?" Harry asked, directing his question at Snape.

Snape sighed.

So it was that they ended up taking a trip to the nearby muggle library, checking out three books on butterflies, eventually floo-calling Pomfrey for advice on butterfly care, brewing an extremely weak SkeleGrow potion, crushing up fruit for "Natural fruit juice, that's what the book said," and generally nursing the wounded butterfly back to health.

It was late evening before the boys were satisfied enough with Jack's care to eat a quick dinner before they went right back to the butterfly books, perusing every species to determine what Jack was.

At last, the two men withdrew to a room where the boys wouldn't be able to hear their conversation and Snape held out a vial of vertaserum. "Time to tell the truth."

Sirius grimaced at the potion, but downed it all in one go. The effects were… weird, to say the least. Sirius felt like his memories were as clear as if he was living them, but his surroundings were fuzzy, and he felt like he'd had too much alcohol. But he did hear with startling clarity Snape's command to tell him what happened Halloween night 1981, and all the important events leading up to it.

"I was going to be the Secret Keeper," Sirius began. "James was inside with Julian and Harry. Julian had been upset, so James stayed with the two of them to keep them calm while Lily performed the charm. She was always the best at charms… And Peter," he spat out the name, "was there. He had come to visit with Remus before we set up the charm since they weren't going to visit for a while. Keep people away from James and Lily and the twins. Remus apparated away, but Peter didn't. He came over to me and Lily, looking all nervous and shy and concerned. He said that he was worried I was too obvious a choice to be Secret Keeper, that people would guess. He was so sly about it. He convinced Lily and I that a change should be made.

"And I suggested him," Sirius said, his voice full of disgust for himself. "I suggested he be the Secret Keeper, because no one would ever guess groveling, pathetic, Peter Pettigrew was the Potters' Secret Keeper. He even tried to back out of it, not very hard, but me and Lily tried very hard to convince him. So he agreed, as long as we didn't tell anyone, not even James. Said the less people who knew the better. Said that since James still came out on Auror business sometimes we couldn't tell him. Said it was too risky.

"James still wanted to help people, but I wish he hadn't. His family was his priority, but he still got antsy sitting around. He didn't go on missions often, but he did go. So Lily and I agreed not to tell until the whole thing was over. Or at least until it looked like it wouldn't be over for years to come.

"I played right into his hands!" Sirius yelled, feeling more and more unbalanced and unstable and teetering a bit to one side. "I may as well have handed Voldemort the keys to the front Door! I may as well have killed Lily myself! I—"

"FOCUS, BLACK!" Snape shouted, interrupting the destructive side trail.

Sirius breathed heavily for a few minutes before he managed to say, "No one knew but us three about the switch… I thought it was so clever. And then Peter betrayed them. Betrayed all of us. Went straight to Voldemort, I'll bet. Told them where James and Lily were. If James hadn't hit his head like he did, been knocked out and left for dead instead of Voldemort finishing the job, he would've died just like Lily…

"I'd been on my way to visit. I got there and saw the house crumbling and heard the babies crying… I… I checked on Harry and Julian. They were still alive. Lily was dead. Thought James was too… all the blood… just pooling around his head…"

"… And you went after Pettigrew," Snape said with a sigh.

"Yeah. Order members started arriving so I knew Harry and Julian would be fine. I went after him right away. And he was expecting it. He blew up the street and everyone in it, including himself, I guess, laying all the blame on me. He framed me. He should've been a Slytherin, slimy snake would've fit right in."

"And then the aurors showed up and you went straight to Azkaban without a trial."

"Wormtail was the real traitor."

The statement hung in the air for what seemed like forever before Snape handed Sirius a bottle of firewhiskey, told him he was going to put the boys to bed, and left.

Sirius sat down hard in a moth-eaten armchair with the bottle and drowned his sorrows.

.o.0.O.0.o.

The next morning saw Draco and Harry up bright and early, Snape sleeping soundly, and no sign of Sirius. The two boys went straight for their butterfly and let the adults sleep in while they tended to their wounded friend. They busied themselves with their butterfly books, finally identifying Jack's species (Red Admiral), and decided to wait until their respective godfathers came down for breakfast to eat (but made sure Jack had plenty of 'natural juice' to drink).

Neither Sirius nor Snape came out for breakfast.

"I'm hungry," Draco whined, drumming his fingers on the butterfly book.

Harry shrugged, more used to the lack of food, and rested his chin on the table next to Jack.

"It's almost lunch time," Draco complained.

"Why do you think they're sleeping so long?" Harry asked, watching Jack's healing wing twitch a little.

Draco huffed. "Probably something to do with whatever they went off to talk about last night."

"We could be really loud to wake them up," Harry suggested. "If we're loud enough it'll probably get them up."

Draco considered the idea, tapping a finger on his chin as he always liked to do when he was thinking. "Maybe we could slam the doors a couple times?"

Harry chewed the inside of his lip and thought about it moment before saying, "Oh, I know. We could cook lunch or something, I know how since the Dursleys made me, and be really loud with all the pots and pans. Then when they come down they won't be mad because we'll have food for them."

Draco grinned. "Brilliant! Let's do it."

So Operation Food Wake Up Call was put into place and the two young wizards made the loudest racket they possibly could; slamming cabinet doors, clanging pans together as they removed them, banging on random objects when they felt there wasn't enough noise, etc.

The operation was a raging success. Not too long after Draco and Harry had set the table (with an unnecessary amount of clanging), Sirius and Snape stumbled into the little dining room, rumpled and smelling funny but awake.

"Good morning!" Harry greeted cheerfully, only shouting a little bit. Even though the adults were already up, being loud was a bit fun. And it was kind of funny how the adults kept flinching.

Both men winced at the volume and Draco, noticing the reaction, shouted a "GOOD MORNING!" as well.

Snape and Sirius cringed in pain.

"What's this?" Snape groused, staring incomprehensibly at the set table.

"Breakfast!" Harry exclaimed, bringing over a bowl of eggs.

"Well, technically lunch!" Draco said loudly, bringing over the plate of sizzling bacon. "But it's breakfast foods, bacon and eggs!"

"We got hungry!" Harry continued, still with raised volume. "So we thought you wouldn't mind if we made something!"

"Why are you shouting?" Sirius whined, squinting in the sunlight.

"Well, you weren't waking UP!" Draco yelled as he pulled out a chair and slid onto it.

Snape whimpered.

Sirius looked over at Snape as if he was just seeing him. "Did you get drunk too?"

Snape didn't answer, but his pained look was answer enough.

"What's drunk?" Harry asked innocently, climbing onto his chair.

"Is it something best friends do?" Draco added, a sly look in his eye that he exchanged with Harry.

"NO!" Sirius and Snape shouted at the same, both groaning afterward. They were most certainly NOT best friends, not even after the last night, and they didn't need a certain pair of seven year-old best friends getting any ideas.

.o.0.O.0.o.

After what Sirius and Snape took to calling That Night, Snape took a special interest in making sure both of their godsons were safe from their respective legal guardians. Draco went back to Malfoy Manor on weekends, setting off the occasionally bout of "accidental magic" with the help of Dobby just to reinforce the "need" for his apprenticeship with his godfather.

Sirius thought about leaving Harry with Snape and Draco for a little while to clean out a Grimmauld Place so he and Harry didn't need to keep mooching off Snape (which Sirius really was not comfortable with). Plus, he wanted to be somewhere with a few more protection wards than the minimal ones Spinner's End had. But when he suggested it to Snape the man was immediately against it.

"That place probably has more Dark Artifacts in it than the Department of Mysteries!" Snape exclaimed, thinking something along the lines of 'idiots Gryffindors.'

"I know that," Sirius said impatiently. "That's why I was going to go clean it out."

At this point, Snape decided to mention the Prince inheritance from his mother's side—Eileen Prince. Technically it wasn't his inheritance since his mother had been disowned and disinherited when she married a muggle. However, no one else was around to collect the inheritance. Snape had tried, briefly, but as busy as he was (spying on two different people for those same people, dealing with idiot students and exploding cauldrons) he didn't have the time or the know-how to accomplish such a feat.

Sirius suggested Dumbledore, which got him a glare and scathing comment about explaining why he wanted to collect the Prince inheritance now of all times. So Sirius agreed to watch the boys while Snape went to try to claim his inheritance. Not exactly how Sirius expected things to go, but he was happy with the outcome. After all, he got to play with the kids instead of work. He was pretty sure he'd come out on top of this one.

Two weeks later they were moving into Prince Manor.

Harry was absolutely enchanted. Prince Manor was older and not quite as large or lavish as the Malfoys', so Draco wasn't as impressed, but Harry's excitement was, of course, rather infectious. Within a few minutes of their arrival Harry and Draco were running around "exploring!"

Sirius was just glad to be somewhere that was both exceedingly safe and did not remind Sirius uncomfortably of Snape.

At the end of summer, Lucius and Narcissa expressed their concern at Draco being away for so long. Snape spun them a half-truth about how Draco was quite talented but needed a lot of work on control. He also reminded them that magical apprenticeships lasted at least three years and he would need to see Draco often for that period of time. Narcissa was relieved. Lucius was not. However, Narcissa was able to calm her agitated husband and remind him that it was only temporary. Snape added that during the school year he would only be able to take him on the weekends anyway. Things were smoothed over easily after that.

So they fell into a routine of sorts. During the school year Snape and Draco were only at the Prince Manor on the weekends, leaving Harry and Sirius alone the rest of the week. During the summer Draco spent as much time as he could possibly weasel out of his parents at Prince Manor with his godfather and his best friend and his 'cool uncle' (a term Snape detested, but couldn't break the child of).

That routine lasted until the end of Draco's faux apprenticeship three years later. Then things got messy.

A/N: Hey, look at that. You don't hear from me for... the whole summer? Then BOOM two long chapters. Your welcome. Anyway. Next up is a James-Julian interlude, and then a dose of Draco before we move on to Hogwarts. Enjoy! [And please review if you did, I give out virtual cookies (::) (::) (::)]

Just one guest review to answer: Please don't explode. I wrote the next chapter really fast :)