Chapter 6

It was as if what Andy had said to Sirius the night before had given him some security because for the first time since he had been back, Sirius slept late the next morning. Having fallen asleep next to Harry, he was in the land of the nod still as the lad got out quietly and went outside into the kitchen.

Remus, who had ever been an early riser, was up and as soon as Harry got out to the kitchen, he put his hands up to him for a cuddle despite the fact he had been hugged all night. Now he knew he was not going to be denied affection when he asked for it, he wanted it all the time.

"Good morning mate," said Remus as he lifted him up without thinking about it and kissed his forehead. "How are you?"

"Good – Sirius is still asleep though," he said to him, his shock showing, so accustom was he to his godfather being up before he was.

"Well, I think we had better let him have a lie in then, hadn't we? I bet he is tired out still from all that play yesterday."

"Yeah we had a lot of fun didn't we?"

"Always kiddo." Said Remus as he kissed him again. "What do you want for breakfast today?"

Even though they were making real progress with Harry, decision making was still an issue. It was not that Harry could not make them thought Remus, it was that he did not like to do so in case they thought he was being presumptuous or he made the wrong one. Of course, that was going to go in time but the only way they could think of to get past it was to keep asking until Harry was comfortable with it and so that was the path they were perusing.

But it seemed as if they were in luck that day.

"Toast." Said Harry quietly with a look of concentration on his face suddenly and the desperation to be told he had made the right choice was also there.

"Anything on it?"

"Jam..."

"And orange juice?"

Harry nodded.

"Ok we can do that. Why don't you get the juice out of the fridge?"

As much as they wanted to do all they could for Harry, Remus and Sirius believed that to be a family they also had to be a team and so had also made the decision not to let Harry sit on the side lines of what they were doing, not to put him on a pedestal. He was going to be part of their family and so if there were things he could do to help make breakfast then he should do them. Ten minutes later they were both sitting at the table together both stilled pyjamad munching away together.

"What are we going to do today?" asked Harry.

"What would you like to do?"

Harry shrugged which was fair enough Remus supposed - at least he had got what the lad had really wanted for breakfast out of him.

"Well, we can chill out till Sirius gets up and then we can figure it out, yeah?"

Smile restored, Harry nodded.

Remus had to say he enjoyed the little time he got with Harry alone. It had been a long time since he had had anything which was even near a family (not that the other two were better off) but he could not help but feel side lined sometimes, even if he knew it was unintentional. Sirius felt as if he had a debt to pay to James as he had not yet been there for Harry as he would have liked to have been.

But just because Sirius had the title and he didn't, did not mean he loved the lad any less or felt any less responsible for him.

While the two of them were waiting for Sirius to get up they begun to play with Harry's cuddly toys, which Remus noticed he was always gentle with. Because of the fact he knew they had come from, his mummy and his daddy, they were extra precious to him. He knew that when he was a young boy, before he could remember, his mother and his father had touched these toys, and perhaps just in some tiny way, when he held what they hand, he was touching them as well.

Sirius did not get up till gone ten in the end. Waking up to find Harry gone from his side had not been a pleasant experience till he had heard him in the next room laughing with Remus. And when he heard it he had smiled.

Waking up to a giggling Harry was the way he wanted every day to begin.

"How are you this morning young man?" he said as he went into the living room and was greeted with a hug just as Remus had been.

"Did you have a good sleep?" said Remus with a grin as Sirius had the cheek to yawn.

"Yes, I did actually."

After a few weeks out of Azkaban, he seemed to be feeling a little more like himself. He had not thought to find so much peace in himself so soon. But he felt a contentment he had not known in quite some time that morning.

"And how did last night go? Was it a success?"

Of course, what Remus had been thinking about was when he had gone to his cousins but the first half of the night, he admitted to himself, had been rather over shadowed by the second now. He wondered if he had done the right thing when he had gone too Surrey.

But he had had to act on his word; he always had. Had it been a success?

"Yeah... Yeah it was." He said as he kissed the lad in his arms and spun him about causing an eruption of giggles.

He looked at Harry and he remembered how he had found him and he knew he had done the right thing. James would not have left it and so he couldn't.

"Where did you go last night Sirius?"

"I went to see my cousin." He said to him and a slight look of upset came over Harry's face. The only cousin he had ever known was Dudley which had to account for it.

"She is a very nice lady, don't worry about it mate. I told her all about you."

"What did you say?"

"I said you were a very lovely boy who I love a great deal, and she says she's like to meet you. I'd be there as well so do you think that would be ok?" Assured that he was not going to be on his own, Harry nodded.

"And you would be there?"

"All of the time – but Harry, if you do not want to do this yet then you don't have to," said Sirius. The last thing he wanted to do in the world was to make the lad feel uncomfortable because he knew if he did, then he risked the bond he had so far made with him and he was not going to do that for anything in the world.

As much as he did want his family back, Harry was more important that they were to him.

Everything had to move at his speed.

"No, if you are there then it is going to be ok isn't it?" he said to him as he hugged is godfather tight. In the time he had been with him, he had gained an unshakable faith in Sirius. And Sirius had to say it scared him.

"What if I don't mean to, but one day I let him down?" he asked Remus when the lad was in the toilet later that day.

Remus had been waiting for such a question since he had heard what Harry had said to him. He knew as much as Sirius loved Harry, nothing scared him more than that boy because nobody else had the power that Harry did over him; the power had come with the love.

"You are far too devoted to that boy to allow that to happen," replied Remus. He did not foresee a time in the future then he was going to let that happen. Ever since he had got the trunk he had been so much more together. "But if god forbid that did happen, then I know you would find a way to make it up to him."

"Remus, I could not wait to be back with him - I just didn't know how scary raising a kid was going to be."

"Well now you do – in fact, now we do. I mean the idea of Lily and James having kids I thought was so that we could play with the rugrats and give them back at the end of the day but I suppose best laid plans and all ... the point, however, I should be trying to make is that you love that boy like no one else ever has and as long as that is the case, nothing else matters."

()()()

"I think this one was the blanket that mum and dad got for you."

No one was more surprised than Sirius than when Harry came up to him and asked if they could go through more of the trunk. Inevitably, when they had first had a go at it, the two of them had found it a little over whelming – but now that they were prepared for what they were going to find, Sirius Harry and Remus found they were able to get through a lot more of it without tears.

"Yeah it was." Remus confirmed as he looked at the baby blue blanket he had seen Harry wrapped up in when he had been a baby. He also remembered lying it out on the floor once or twice so that when Harry was sick of being cuddle he could chill out on it and have a bit of a kick around.

Most of the time, he had been a good natured baby though; he had loved his cuddles just as much as his mum and his dad (and his uncle and godfather for that matter) had loved given them to him.

"And this was the teddy that I got you when you were still at St Mungos with mum," said the werewolf as he got out it out of the trunk.

When they had been apart, he had forgotten he had got it for him. He had forgotten so much about the time he had spent with them and that made him sad. What about the things he had no mementos of? Was he ever going to get those memories back or were they just got with the wind?

Harry gently took the two from Remus and cuddled it close.

He was finally beginning to believe he had been loved when he was a baby, thought Remus. The reinforcement that the trunks were giving him could have come from nowhere else but Lily and James themselves.

"It is funny going through all of this." Said the little boy quite suddenly and he had a look of pure frustration of his face once more. It was as if he wanted to tell them something but he knew he was never going to be able to find the words.

"I know kiddo," Sirius soothed him from across the room.

Whatever Harry was going through, he felt it too. He was pretty sure all three of them did.

()()()

Dumbledore sat in his office with a letter from Remus Lupin in his hands. He did not think the two surviving Marauders were ever going to forgive him for the choice he had made when it came to Harry, for in their eyes it had never been his choice to make, but at least he was now able to comfort himself that the letters he was getting from the flat were now once more slightly affectionate.

It seemed that the gifts he had given them had brought some calm to the house hold. That was what he had intended to do for he knew tempers had been fraying over there.

And he had to be in favour with that household too, for if he was not, how was he ever going to ensure the safety of that child?

He had been about to go thought he letter for a second time when there was a knock on the door. It was funny – after years of living at Hogwarts he had got quite used to the different knocks of the different members of staff so if one of them did, he generally knew before the door was open who it was and that was the case just then.

"Please come in Severus!" he called as he put the letter down.

He knew if there was one person in the world who hated the new laws that the ministry had brought in and thought they were a bad idea, it was the Potions Master. He still remembered the day he had first spoken to him about them.

Severus, because of his own past, was even harsher on the justice system than most and thought it was far too lenient; and that was before he had worked out that Sirius Black was indeed going to be returning to the wizarding world.

Now, he hated nothing more than the idea than Lily's son was in the care of that man. James Potter's bests friend and man was never going to be good enough to be near her son in his opinion and when he heard what was going on he had gone straight to Dumbledore to petition him to stop it but he had been unable to. Sirius had had the right to go and get the boy and as it had turned out in the end, he had needed saving. But that did not change the fact he had been a much happier man when he had known the child of the women he had loved had not been in the care of Sirius Black.

"Good day headmaster."

"And a good day to you as well Severus, how are you today?"

"I am as I am every other day." He said dryly

Albus could not help but agree with that assessment because he knew it had been a very long time since he had been ok.

Reflecting, he could not help but think how he had let the class of 1979 down. Certainly they had been the ones who had paid the biggest price for the war, each in their own way it seemed. There was not one of them who had not paid in some way or another. And he wondered if he could have helped them in another way or done something differently to ensure their safety more than he had.

"Indeed." He said with a heavy hearted sigh.

While they had not affected him in the same way they had got to Remus and Sirius, he knew the events of the last few weeks had got to him. There was a heavy weight in his heart all of a sudden.

"And are you ok headmaster?" he asked.

Albus looked up at Severus and for the first time he saw every one he had let down over the years. Severus... Harry... Remus... Sirius...Alice... Frank... Lily... James.

All the way back to his brother and sister. Back to Ariana...

Had he ever thought of someone else except himself?

Out of the corner of his eye the letter seemed to be mocking him. Within the parchment was a hope – a dream. A hope of a new family.

It was everything he had wanted since he had lost his – he had had it once and he had never appreciated it. And now as Sirius, Remus and Harry tried to find their way to come together, he had been left on the side lines.

"I was." He sighed.

He had been ok once. But that time too was gone...

()()()

"So I have got a letter from Andy and she's says the three of us can go over for our dinner on Saturday night if we are all up for it." Said Sirius as he brought lunch into the living room. Andy's owl followed him into the room.

Apparently it had been told to get an answer before it left.

"Well, saves one of us cooking doesn't it?" Remus nodded. "What do you think little man? Tea with Sirius' cousin and her family on Saturday?"

Harry nodded.

"You sure buddy? We don't have to go yet if you don't feel ready," said Sirius to him, not wanting to rush him.

"No, it's cool."

If she was Sirius cousin then she had to be good didn't she? And besides, Remus seemed to be up for it as well.

"Ok then, that's settled." He said as the other two tucked into their sandwiches. "Saturday night it is."

()()()

By the time that Saturday came round; Sirius found he was not only looking forward to the night but excited about it too. It had been god only knew how long since he had seen his kid cousin and as much as he had had to focus on Harry since he had been out, he was not the only person he cared about.

He wanted to know all about Nymphadora. She was growing up fast and he had missed out too much on her life already.

If he had done his maths right then she was about to go into her second year at school when she went back after summer, meaning that her school years and Harry's were going to overlap by one.

"Right, are we ready to go troops?" he said at six.

Harry came into the room, Remus's teddy in his arms. Of all the toys they had got out of the trunks, that was the one he had become the most attached to once more. When they had got them back he had thought he was going to cling to the ones his mum and his dad had got for him. But then he knew Remus; he was now real to him in a way his mum and were never going to be again.

Not now. And the werewolf had to say he was rather touched when he saw the way the lad carried it about with him.

"Yup."

Harry gave him a smile that he had not been expecting. When he had said he was ready to go for the meal, his godfather had had to say he had not been convinced by his reaction.

But as usual, as good as his word, Harry was coming up trumps for him.

"There's a good lad."

There was going to be another first for Harry that night. Rather than drive as they had done when they had picked him up from his aunt and his uncles, Sirius and Remus had decided they were going to flew to the cottage with Harry.

It was the quickest way for them to get there and they knew as Harry got older they were going to want to travel with him by magical means. It was odd what they were going through – it was as if they had to in a way re-socialised the boy completely to suit the ways of the world that the three of them were living in which was, of course, exactly what they had to do… so really it wasn't 'as if' at all, mused Sirius.

Harry had to see magic as a good influence on his life.

And that meant he did not have to go on any more long car journeys.

It helped that he was going to go with Sirius. Reaching up to him as he had been told to do when the adults had for explained what they were going to do, he settled quickly in to his god father's arms.

"Now are you sure you want to do this? We don't have to if it is too soon."

"Padfoot, it's cool." Said Harry, eager to please and slightly exasperated.

"Ok," said Sirius as he checked with a look from Remus that he thought here was doing the right thing again.

They had talked about it and they had said he did not have to go through with it if he did not wish too. Not yet – after all it was still early days for them all. Hopefully he knew the pair of them well enough by now to know he meant it. They would not have got angry if he had said to them that he was not ready to met Andromeda yet.

But he had said he was ready.

Apparating for Sirius was like riding a broom; he found even though he had been prevented from doing it for so long, he had not forgotten how too.

Holding on to his god son tightly he found he was soon outside his cousins house.

Eyes back on Harry, he caught his eye.

"You ok, pup? How was that?"

"Cool!" said a wide eyed Harry. Sirius had warned him that he might feel a little sick the first time; but apparently that was not the case.

Remus was soon once more next to them and he had a smile on his face.

"Shall we knock on the door then?" said Remus.

"Indeed we should Moony."

The door, however, was almost before they got there. It was obvious Andy had been looking forward to their visit and she had a big smile on their face to greet the three of them.…

"Welcome guys!" she said with a beaming smile.

"Hey Andy," said Sirius as he walked in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He had been about to put his little one down till he felt him cling on together.

Maybe not.

"Thank you so much for having us over," said Remus from behind.

"Not at all, it's a pleasure to do so." She beamed. "And how is this young man today?" she addressed Harry.

When no immediate response came, Sirius saw that he was in need of a rescue.

"Perhaps a little shy. Perhaps a drink would brighten him up, hey pup?" he said to the boy who was currently hiding his face in his shoulder.

"Of course," said Andy with an apologetic smile which her cousin shrugged off knowing, or should he say hoping, that Harry would settle through the evening.

And so the three went in to the cottage to begin their first brave attempt at a social visit as a family.

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Author Note: I am so sorry for the delay guys; work and then my holiday have prevented me from updating. I'm back now though and am hoping to get more chapters out quicker than this one came!