Yep I'm finally back. I'm so sorry for the long absence, I'm afraid that work has picked up and so have not had a lot of time for creative writing. I am currently not very well and am stuck in bed so to relieve my boredom I thought I would update the story for you guys. Sometimes being sick has it's perks. Hope you enjoy this new chapter. We finally see the first meeting of Harry and Sirius. Sirius is one of my favourite characters so to be able to write him in is great.

Just a reminder that this story is AU so although it does stick roughly to the first two books there are several major differences thereafter. Third year is where everything changes, so leave your Harry Potter books behind and travel into the unknown parts of Harry's life. This is basically what this story is about, most people only see Harry as he wants them to see him, a slacker, brash, uses his emotions to rule himself, when in fact there's a lot more to Harry then most see, including Ron and Hermione. He's smart, pranks, loves and most of all he plans. Harry is what Voldemort doesn't expect.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters.

Third Year Summer – Padfoot and Harry

"Dobby!" Harry shouted as he ran into his room, still shaking with anger. How dare she talk about them like that, and in front of him no less. She deserved what she got. A small pop heralded the arrival of Dobby.

"Master Harry, what has happened?" Dobby asked seeing that Harry was still boiling with anger. Harry gave him a small smile and started throwing stuff into his trunk.

"She finally pushed me too far Dobby, I guess I kinda lost it for a moment," he said sheepishly. Dobby's eye's widened before clicking his fingers. All of Harry stuff floated into his trunk which the closed and shrunk down to pocket size.

"Dobby is surprised that Master Harry managed to hold off on his anger for so long. Dobby has heard nasty woman say many mean things to master Harry. She is not being a very nice person." Dobby shook his head.

"I need to go Dobby, can you go to Hogwarts and wait for me there?" Dobby nodded in confirmation before popping away. Harry quickly locked his door behind him and ran down the stairs, leaving the house behind him as fast as he could. He was several streets away on Magnolia crescent before he slowed down. That was when the adrenaline had stopped and panic was starting to ensue.

He'd done magic, outside of school and he was underage. It had been fine when dobby was using magic as house elf magic flew under the ministries radar, but his magic was easily traceable, they were sure to expel him. He walked slower now, the full repercussions of his actions sinking in. Where should he go? He could fly but it wasn't a very warm night for flying. He looked down at his wand and an idea crept into his mind. The Knightbus. He'd once read about it at school, it was a magical transport for stranded witches and wizards, he was definitely a stranded wizard stuck in a muggle part of town. He could get them to take him to the leaky cauldron, from there he could get into Diagon Alley and try to find a way to hide.

A rustle of bushes behind him caused him to spin around expecting to see ministry officials who had come to snap his wand. The bushes were dark and he pointed his wand, casting a lumos to dispel the darkness. It revealed a big black dog which looked rather gaunt and unfed. He lowered his wand and the dog padded forward cautiously. Harry reached out his hand to pet the dog and was surprised to see that the dog had pushed his nose onto Harry's outstretched hand. He smiled and petted the dog who seemed starved of affection. Now that he was out in the street he could fully see the dog, and boy was it big. Bigger than any dog he'd ever seen. In fact it looked just like the grim. An omen of death. But Grims didn't allow people to pet them, they scared people to death. He looked closer at the dog and found himself drawn to its eyes, they were a deep grey colour, full of hurt and emotion. They were familiar to him, as if he'd seen them before. The dog licked his hand making Harry freeze. It was so familiar, because he had seen him before, played with him before. This was Padfoot, his godfathers animagus form. He almost smacked his hand against his head, he'd been staring at the picture for weeks yet it had taken him this long to figure out that his godfather was sitting right in front of him. He never expected to see him here though, of all the places he could go to why would he come here? To see you of course the voice in his head shouted. He smirked and patted Padfoot's head. He'd take him along on the bus, he wouldn't let Padfoot know quite yet that he knew who he was, he wanted to have some fun first.

"Hey boy, are you on your own?" His head nodded in confirmation. "Yeah me too, I accidentally inflated my aunt marge up. She floated away just like a massive balloon. It was great, but I had to leave, the ministry officials will most likely be nearby trying to fix things and I don't want them to snap my wand. I'd never be able to defend against Voldemort without it. I need to get to London, I don't mind having a travelling companion, if you'd like to come that it?" Padfoot barked and licked his face in agreement. Harry smiled. He held his wand arm out into the road and quickly took a step back as a purple triple decker bus appeared.

"Welcome to the Knightbus, emergency transport for they stranded witch or wizard. My name is Stan Shunpike and I will be your conductor for this evening." Harry grinned.

"How much to get to London? He asked. Stan looked down at him.

"That'll be 11 sickles plus 5 sickles for the dog." Harry grabbed the money bag from his pocket and counted out the required coinage. Stan lead them onto the bus, inside there were beds instead of seats. He was lead to a bed near the front, behind the driver. Stan turned to look at Harry, "Say woss your name?"

"Neville Longbottom, he said quickly, saying the first name that popped into his head.

"Hey Ernie, this is Neville." The driver nodded his head before a bang sounded and they were moving. The trip was pretty uneventful, unless you count the sliding beds as eventful. It was about half way through the trip that the subject of Sirius Black had popped up. Stan had been reading the daily prophet when he had caught Harry looking at it.

"Scary looking fing, innee?" said Stan. Harry nodded in agreement, it was true that in the picture he looked slightly mad, but then after 13 years in Azkaban surrounded by dementors was enough to make anyone go mad. He inwardly smirked as phase one of his plan started.

"He killed 13 people, with one curse?" he said putting a scared look on his face. That was of course a lie, Sirius would never hurt anyone, well ok, maybe Snivillus but that was an accident, he hadn't expected Snape to actually listen to him. A fully transformed werewolf is nothing to mess with. Not to mention the fact that Pettigrew was still alive which pointed to it being more likely to be the betrayer.

"Yep. He was a big supporter of who-know-who. He knows dark magic tha' one." Harry nodded in agreement. Inwardly he was laughing. Sirius being dark was like Voldemort liking cute little bunnies. No Sirius was more like Casanova, that's what his mother used to say about him.

"Where about's in London you want to go Neville?" Stan asked.

"Leaky Cauldron." Stan nodded and a few minutes later the bus came to a screeching stop. He turned towards Stan and thanked him before stepping off the bus walking straight into none other than the minister of magic.

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Hedwig sat on his arm whilst Padfoot walked along next to him. The meeting with the minister of magic had been entertaining. It was quite obvious that fudge was a bumbling idiot who was quite taken in with his boy-who-lived status. Then there had been the almost movie worth reaction to Sirius Black. The man had positively tripped over himself to assure Harry that he was in no danger. He had to stifle a giggle when once or twice Padfoot had rolled his eyes. How he was to stay at the Leaky Cauldron until September 1st, which in his mind was utterly fantastic. He opened the door to the room he had been assigned allowing Padfoot to walk in, Hedwig fluttered off his arm onto the owl stand over by the window. Once they were in Harry quickly closed the door behind him placing a locking and silencing charm on the door. Now for some fun. He turned back around and knelt down to rub Padfoot's head.

"Hey boy, you know for a dog you've been pretty well behaved, although we should probably do something about that flea problem." Padfoot barked in agreement. Harry smiled as he remembered something his mother had wrote in one of her journals. He hoped it would make Sirius realise he knew who he was. It would also be a great first prank to pull on his godfather.

"I've been calling you boy all evening but are you actually a boy dog?" Padfoot nodded his head and barked. Harry put a thoughtful look on his face. "I've always wanted a dog, when I was young I never had any friends, I could probably convince Hagrid to look after you with Fang during school year and take you home during the summers. Can you imagine the look on the Dursley's faces when they see the size of you, they wouldn't dare touch me with you around." He gave Padfoot a small smile and the dog gave his hand a soft lick. "It's still a lot of responsibility though to look after a pet, I've got to make sure you're kept clean, fed and watered. I wonder if I should take you to the muggle vets. They could check to make sure you're not tagged and get your fleas sorted out at the same time. We could probably get everything sorted there if you know what I mean." He looked thoughtful again. "We could go with another plan though. Spells would be much less painful than a pair of scissors don't you think?" He almost started laughing there at the sight of panic on Padfoot's face as the ball dropped. "My mum used to say that if she ever caught you digging holes in the garden again she wouldn't hesitate to do the job herself. In fact, on many occasions she thought it would be doing the whole wizarding world a huge favour. I mean can you imagine old McGonagall's face if she ever saw any mini Padfoot's, I think she would most likely retire, don't you think?" he turned to see comprehension dawn on Padfoot's face before he bounded over knocking Harry to the floor and licking his face.

"Ewww, gross. Get off me." He pushed the animagus off him. "It's safe to change in here, the doors locked and a silencing charm is active." The dog nodded and in the blink of an eye where there had once been a dog a man now stood. The years in Azkaban had not been kind to him, he had lost his handsome looks, and his hair was matted and long. The robes he wore were threadbare and filthy. His face was gaunt but you could almost see the man he had been when a big smile covered his face. He stepped towards him and Harry was only too happy to meet the man halfway in a hug that both had longed for, for 13 years. The two held each other, tears of happiness leaking from both of their eyes.

"It's been so long pup, I thought I might never see you again." Harry nodded and sniffed, not even attempting to dry his eyes. He'd finally found his family, someone who cared about him, who he could talk to and cry with. He felt Sirius rub his back, comforting him. "I'm so sorry pup, I wasn't there for you, especially when you needed me. You must hate me, because of me your parents are dead and you're living with those dreadful muggles." Harry took a step back and shook his head.

"I could never hate you, you're my godfather, the only family I have left. You love me so much that you broke out of Azkaban to protect me. None of this was your fault, how were you to know that Wormtail was the traitor. He was your friend, a fellow marauder, it was totally unexpected." Sirius looked at him in shock.

"How'd you know all that? We never told anyone that we were switching secret keepers. The only ones present at the time of the discussion was me, Wormtail, your mum and dad and you. Wait…you remember?" Harry nodded, making Sirius pale.

"I went to Godric's Hollow at the beginning of summer, my house elf Dobby took me." Sirius looked surprised.

"You have a house elf?" Harry's face went red, nodding. He quickly explained Dobby's past to his godfather.

"That's a good thing you've done there Harry. Not many wizards would think that house elves are much good for anything except household chores." Harry smiled.

"He's more than just my house elf, he's my friend." Sirius nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Your parents would be proud of you." Harry smiled and continued to tell Sirius about his trip to Godric's Hollow. At the end Sirius had ended up sat down on the bed, his mind going over everything that Harry had just told him.

"So if I hadn't arrived when I did, Wormtail may have finished you off." Harry nodded. "When I get my hands on that rat, he won't know what hit him." Harry nodded.

"Just make sure there's enough left for me. He also needs to be left alive, after all alive he's your ticket to freedom, dead the truth dies with him." Sirius nodded before blushing, his stomach had decided to join the conversation. Harry laughed.

"Guess your stomach decided that there should be less chatting and more eating. I'll call Dobby and see if he can't get you anything to eat." A small pop heralded the arrival of the small house elf. He flung himself at Harry giving him a hug.

"Master Harry, you is okay. Dobby was afraid that you is not getting away from that awful man." Harry put Dobby down and knelt down to his eye level.

"I'm ok Dobby, I'm fine, see no damage." The house elf smiled at these words and calmed down considerably.

"Dobby is happy that Master Harry is away from those bad muggles. Dobby ought to go back and give them a piece of Dobby's mind." Harry laughed.

"They're not worth it Dobby," he stood back up. "Dobby this is Sirius Black, he's my godfather." Dobby turned to see Sirius standing behind him, eyes filled with mirth from the concern the little house elf had shown for his god son.

"Lord Black, Dobby is being glad that you has escaped from Azkaban. Dobby knows that Lord Black is not a death eater." His voice lowered considerably and shifted nervously. "Dobby heard his old masters gloat about your incarceration when you's being innocent." Sirius snorted.

"Lucius always was the slippery sort. He probably found it hilarious." Dobby nodded sadly.

"Dobby, Sirius is unable to go out and buy himself some new robes. Would it be possible for you to go and order him some new ones tomorrow when the shops are open please?" Dobby nodded. "That's great Dobby. Sirius is dying of starvation as we speak so would it be possible for you to grab him some food?" Dobby's smile grew wider.

"Dobby is being sure to get lots of food so that Lord Black is well fed." Harry nodded gratefully and the small elf popped away. Sirius flashed Harry a grin.

"He's really taken with you isn't he?" Harry nodded. "So you're going into your third year, tell me about your time at Hogwarts." At this Harry grinned.

"How long have you got?" Sirius smirked and made himself comfy.

"I can tell that this is going to be interesting."