Sirius had spoken to Dumbledore, and the headmaster had agreed to let Harry come home for the weekend. It was Kura's third birthday this weekend, and Sirius didn't want Harry to miss it. Sirius knew, from personal experience, that these days were the most important days of your life. He'd missed Harry's first four birthdays, and he didn't want Harry to endure anything near what he had. It wasn't the same, but he didn't want Harry to miss the things he had.

"Harry! I need your help!" Sirius shouted. The messy haired boy entered the kitchen, Remus not far behind him. Alex had taken Kura out for the morning, leaving Sirius to make her birthday cake. He was fine at actually making the cake, but he wasn't proving nearly so adept at decorating it.

"Can you not decorate it?" Harry asked, trying and failing to keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Kura asked for a castle, and I can't do the turret" Sirius whined. He suspected that was the reason why Alex had taken Kura out – she had the artistic ability of a flobberworm. She really was awful at it. Sirius found it quite funny really.

"Padfoot, move. Harry and I can do it" Remus said, already pushing Sirius out of the way and taking the knife that Sirius had put down in annoyance. Sirius was kind of embarrassed by the inability to do it; he was normally good at making things. Though, in all fairness, he was good at making things with wood, not cake. Remus would be good at it – he seemed to be good at just about everything he put his mind to.

"You never did tell me why you have those nicknames?" Harry asked, helping Remus ice the cake. "I asked a while ago, but you diverted from answering me"

Bugger. He glanced at Remus, who had frozen. His meaning was obvious. "Do you know what animagi are?"

"Yeah, but what relevance does that have?"

"We were animagi, James, Wormtail and I" Sirius hated mentioning Peter, he was still furious with what he'd done. Harry didn't know who he was; he just knew that there had been a fourth marauder. They never mentioned him by name, he was merely called Wormtail.

Harry's eyes widened. "When did you do that? What do you transform into?"

Sirius breathed a sigh of relief, Harry hadn't asked about the one discrepancy he'd just said. "James was a stag, Wormtail was a rat and I'm a dog"

"Why isn't Remus an animagus?"

Damn. Harry had noticed the discrepancy after all. Remus had dropped the knife. Sirius decided that Harry didn't need to know the truth yet. "Because, when we learnt, we were still at school – and Remus didn't want to break the law"

"You mean it was illegal?"

"Technically, it wasn't. there was no law saying that you couldn't do it…at the time. But it is illegal to not register – which we didn't do, I am now I will just say"

Harry nodded in agreement and leaned forward to help Remus again. Sirius sighed in relief. They'd managed to get away from that particular subject without too much damage. Remus had managed to force a smile back onto his face and Harry was none the wiser.

OoOoOo

Kura was kneeling on her seat at the table, a broad grin on her little face. Harry and Remus were sat on either side of her and Alex was stood behind her, watching Sirius carry the castle cake over to the grinning three year old. Sirius had to say, it looked amazing. He placed the cake on the table in front of her, having already lit the candles.

After singing Happy Birthday they watched as she blew the candles out, clapping her hands in joy.

"Sweetie, do you want to show Daddy what we got when we were out? While we cut you a slice of cake?" Alex asked, putting the camera away subtly. Kura nodded and dragged Harry out into the hall with her, apparently wanting his help with it. They returned a minute later, Harry laden with bags and Kura holding a stuffed pink dragon. She ran to Sirius, who swung her onto his lap.

"Look daddy, it's a dragon" Kura announced proudly, waving the dragon in front of his face.

"Very nice. Does he have a name?" Sirius asked, ignoring Remus and Harry, who were pulling toys out of the bag behind him.

"It's a girl Daddy" Kura told him in a tone that plainly suggested that she thought he was an idiot for thinking the opposite. "Her name is Princess"

Sirius nodded seriously, trying not to laugh at the look of solemnity on his daughters face. He caught Alex's eye, who was trying to laugh silently as she handed Kura a slice of cake.

Sirius smiled as she ate her slice of cake. He'd never thought his life would turn out like this. Sirius didn't think his life would ever have so much good and bad in it. He'd lost so much in the war, but at the same time he'd gained so much since. He wished, more than anything, that James and Lily could be here, but he wouldn't change what he'd gained for anything in the world.

OoOoOo

"Sirius, you said that Snape wouldn't hurt a student. How do you know?" Harry asked, shouldering his bag so he could return to Hogwarts.

Sirius sighed. When Harry got an idea in his mind, he most definitely ran with it. Both he and Remus had, on numerous occasions, tried to reassure Harry about Snape's innocence, but then, how could you persuade a child to trust someone when you weren't even sure if you trusted them yourself? He was sure Snape wouldn't try to kill Harry, but he knew that he'd been a death eater and, as Mr Potter had always said, no one stops being a death eater.

"Harry, I know he wouldn't hurt a student because Dumbledore trusts him. He wouldn't have hired a man who he thought would go round killing students"

"But then, why did he referee the next match if he didn't want to try again?"

Sirius inwardly cursed. He'd been slightly suspicious of that until Dumbledore had explained it to him. "Did you ever think that he was doing it to keep you safe? To ensure it didn't happen again?"

Harry opened his mouth and then closed it again, apparently lost for words. "Why does he hate me then?"

Bugger. Where was Remus when you needed him? "He doesn't hate you Harry, he hates your father and you look so like him that I think he assumes that you'll be just like him. Being raised by Remus and I won't have helped either"

"Why? Why should who I was raised by matter?"

This was straying very close to topics he didn't want to discuss. He didn't want to tell Harry that there was a bad air between the marauders and Snape. Granted, he and James had started it, but they had apologised to him the day after. Snape hadn't believed them and so the vendetta had begun. The marauders had pranked and picked on Snape mercilessly, but Snape had given as good as he got. Not that he had retaliated quite in the same way; his retaliatory swipes had always been dark and cruel. Hell, Sirius could remember one time when Snape had got one of his death eater friends to curse James; Sirius had jumped in front of him. He'd nearly died.

"Because Snape didn't like any of us. He probably thinks you're spoiled and arrogant. Just like he thought your dad was"

Harry opened his mouth furiously. "But I'm not spoiled or arrogant"

Sirius smiled sadly. "I know you're not, but he doesn't"

"Why did he hate you all so much anyway?"

Here we go. Sirius hadn't wanted to discuss this with Harry, but if he was honest with himself, he'd known this conversation would happen sooner or later. He just didn't want to ruin Harry's opinion of him, and especially not of his father. Despite his flaws, James Potter had been a good man, and Harry had been raised with that knowledge. Sirius could only hope that telling Harry the truth wouldn't shake that belief too much.

"We were all quite mean to him at school. You could say we took an instant dislike to each other. Especially James. I think they were both jealous of each other"

Harry snorted. "What on earth did Snape have that my dad could possibly have been jealous of?"

"Your mother," Sirius answered solemnly. "Lily and Snape were friends for years, and that bothered James immensely. She was the one thing your father wanted and couldn't have"

Harry paused to absorb those words. He didn't need to ask what James had; he'd grown up with stories about how good his dad was at Quidditch and how brave and clever he was. Harry looked up, green eyes meeting grey and he spoke. "Surely Snape wouldn't have just taken it?"

"No, he didn't. He retaliated – in a far worse way that innocent pranks"

"So he was cruel even then? How do you know he's not, I don't know, carrying on his vendetta?" Harry seemed to know that was an absurd suggestion as soon as he'd made it, but it was too late then.

"Really Harry? He might be mean, but he's not that stupid"

"Oh, you know what I mean. I just need to know Sirius, do you trust him?"

What a question. Did he personally trust Snape? Not in the slightest. But did he trust Dumbledore? Yes. "I trust in Dumbledore's judgement"

"You didn't answer the question" Sirius winced. He'd hoped Harry hadn't noticed that. It would seem that the days were gone when he could get away with diverting Harry's attention.

"I didn't answer the question because it's not an easy question to answer" Harry continued to stare at him, obviously still expecting an answer. Sirius answered slowly, weighing each word. "You know I don't like Snape, but I don't believe that he would do that. He is not a bad person; yes, he's done some bad things, but then, so have we all. I trust that he wouldn't try to hurt a student"

AN: Ugh, what a day. There was a fire drill, and being in a wheelchair meant that I had to stay in the building. Then I got told off for not knowing what I was meant to do. You'd think, at the age of 19, lecturers telling you off wouldn't bother you. But I was.

Anyway, enough moaning. I know the last chapter wasn't my best, but I really hope this one is back up to par. Please let me know what you think, and feel free to criticise, it really does help me improve as a writer.