Disclaimer: I don't own, I'm not making money, etc. You get the idea.

"Sirius."

"What?"

"Have you thought about what Harry told you concerning how he's treated at his aunt and uncle's?"

Sirius looked over to where Remus lay wrapped in blankets on the couch, recovering from the last full moon. This had been a hard transformation; there were bite marks on his hands and forearms, and scratches across his neck.

"Of course I've thought about it," Sirius grunted. A snowball hit the window with a resounding thump! followed by the delighted shouts of the three teenagers playing outside. He allowed himself a brief smile before turning back to Remus. "Why do you think I insisted on taking him in?"

"I was asking whether you'd thought about how his time with the Dursleys would affect him in the long run." Remus looked out the window, to where Harry and Hermione had ganged up on Ron and were attempting to bury him in a snowdrift. "I admit that he's turned out remarkably well, given the circumstances, but Sirius…"

"What is your point, Remus?" said Sirius, with just the slightest hint of a growl.

"My point," said Remus slowly, as though he were weighing each and every word, "is that no one could have gone though the things that he did and come out unscathed. Sirius, he talked about being locked in a cupboard for weeks as though it were entirely normal." Remus looked back at him then, his brow furrowed in a frown. "I think that someday he's going to have to deal with the things that he went through, and he'll need you to help him."

"What do you think I've been trying to—"

"I wasn't talking about just taking him in." Remus looked at him then, his dark eyes piercing. "You need to be there for him, Sirius."

"Are you suggesting that I haven't been?"

Remus glared. "How much time have you been spending as a dog lately?"

"That," said Sirius coldly, "is none of your business."

"When my only friend starts cutting himself off from the rest of the world, I'm inclined to make it my business." He sat up straighter, wincing at the movement. "Harry's noticed it too."

"Whether he has or not, it's not going to affect him any—"

"For Merlin's sake, Sirius, open your eyes!" Remus exploded, his brows knitted together in anguish. "It is affecting him to see how you deal with your problems, and it'll affect him even worse if you let that stop you from helping him! You should get advice from someone who knows how to deal with children, and you need to talk to him—a real talk, Sirius, not an inane chat about Quidditch or pranks."

"The last I checked," said Sirius coldly, "I was his godfather, not you."

The moment he said it the room seemed to freeze over. Remus gave Sirius an icy glare, and it seemed as if shutters had snapped shut behind his eyes. "Maybe I would be, if it weren't illegal for werewolves to assume guardianship of children." His voice was soft, but Sirius moved back a step at his words.

"Remus, I…"

"No. Forget it." Remus wrapped his blankets tighter around himself and turned into the couch, so that his back was to the room.

"Remus…" Sirius moved forward a step, hand out, but at that moment the door burst open and Harry, Ron, and Hermione spilled into the house, laughing, their faces flushed and melting snow dripping from their hair.

"…dirty trick, ganging up on me two-on-one!"

"Well you asked for it," Harry laughed, "trying to shove snow down my shirt like that!" He began taking off his gloves and scarf.

Hermione, however, moved forward into the house, frowning. "Sirius?" she asked. "Is Prof— is Remus okay?"

Harry and Ron had picked up on the tension as well now; they were no longer laughing, but staring at the place where Remus lay with his back to them, buried under a nest of blankets. Harry's eyebrows were creased in a frown, and Ron's mouth hung open.

"Just let him be," said Sirius quietly, ushering Hermione back toward the kitchen. He forced a smile onto his face. "Now, who'd like some butterbeer?"

Though they carefully avoided discussing their argument over the next few days, all was not well between them. Whenever they spoke Remus addressed Sirius with a cold formality that would have seemed merely quiet and polite to anyone who didn't know him as well as Sirius did. As it was he thought the ongoing tension wasn't noticeable to anyone else in the house, with the possible exception of Hermione, whom Sirius noticed frowning thoughtfully in his direction from time to time.

He wanted to talk to Remus, to make things up with him, but whenever they got a moment alone and Sirius opened his mouth no words would come out.

You've really put your foot in it this time, Padfoot, said a voice in the back of his head. It sounded like James—a terribly disappointed James, at that. Remus really would have been a better guardian for Harry, thought Sirius, slumping forward onto the table. He was the responsible one, the one who thought before he opened his mouth. And Sirius—Sirius was the reckless idiot who'd gotten his best friend killed and landed himself in Azkaban, leaving Harry stranded with his horrible Muggle relatives for twelve years.

All in all, it was a relief when Christmas break ended and an end-of-holidays packing frenzy descended over Alder Cottage. Ron and Hermione's possessions seemed to have become scattered rather widely considering the short time they'd been there, and they had a job getting everything back in order. The Summoning Charm in particular came in handy on multiple occasions.

They finally finished packing, though, and the next morning Sirius and Remus escorted them to an empty field a ways down the road, where Remus hailed the Knight Bus and Sirius paid for it to take them all to King's Cross Station. There they stayed to see Harry onto the train, while Ron wandered off to see his parents and Hermione politely thanked Sirius for having them over. In no time at all, it seemed, there was a loud whistle from the scarlet steam engine and the Hogwarts Express began to move. Harry leaned out the window and waved until the train was out of sight.

Sirius and Remus stood there in silence while all of the other parents drifted away from the platform. It had begun to snow again, and a white dusting settled over their heads and shoulders.

"Remus, I'm sorry." His voice was barely a whisper.

For a moment Sirius thought he wasn't going to answer. Remus simply stood there, eyes closed, looking up to the sky and letting snow fall onto his upturned face. When Remus finally turned and looked at him, face wet with snowmelt, Sirius could see the hurt still etched on his features and felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach.

"Padfoot," he said, "you really need to think before you speak."

Remus had dropped the cold formality, which Sirius supposed was a start. Now his voice was soft and low, laced with an exhaustion that was somehow even worse.

"It should have been you."

Remus looked at him, startled, and thank Merlin he was finally starting to speak normally again. "Sirius, there's no need—"

"I mean it, Remus." Now it was Sirius's turn to look at the sky, to see the snow falling endlessly into his vision, and away. "You're the responsible one, you actually think about these things. The only reason James picked me was because he couldn't use you."

He looked back just in time to see Remus shaking his head, sending snow and water flying off of his hair. "You're mad," he said. "You do know that, right? Azkaban unhinged you after all."

Coming from anyone else that would have been a stinging barb, but somehow when Remus said it, it was all right. And right now Sirius felt as though he deserved it.

"I'm too poor," Remus went on, absently brushing snow off of his head. "I can barely support myself, let alone a child. When I think about how often I couldn't be there for him… not just once in a while, but every full moon. Every twenty-eight days. No, Sirius, I think that things are best as they stand." He turned and started walking back the way they had come.

Sirius fell into step beside him. "You were right, though. I can't do this alone." He ran a hand through his already-tangled hair, and it came away wet with melted snow. "I… I want to do what's best for Harry, but…" Suddenly he turned, grabbed Remus by the shoulders, and whirled him around so they were face-to-face. "You have to help me, Moony, I can't do this by myself!"

"Sirius, calm down." They had reentered the station now, and people were staring. Gently, Remus took ahold of Sirius's wrists and removed his hands from his shoulders. "All right, I will help you. Now, will you listen to my advice this time?"

Sirius swallowed. He could almost feel a large lump moving down his throat, and no wonder: that had been a significant portion of his pride. Slowly, not trusting himself to speak, he nodded.

"Good." Remus smiled his slow, gentle smile, and squeezed Sirius's hands slightly before letting go. "In that case, you know what we have to do next."

Molly Weasley stood in her warm kitchen, looking out the window. The house was quiet with all the children gone, much quieter than she liked. Under any other circumstances she would have been glad for visitors, but this particular occasion filled her with anxiety and she found herself jumping at every noise.

The day Christmas break had ended, she had received an owl. The note was short, and it read:

Dear Molly Weasley,

Sirius and I would like to speak with you, at your earliest convenience, about a matter concerning Harry. Please send your reply by return owl.

Yours Sincerely,

Remus J. Lupin

They wanted, Molly supposed, to talk to her about the allegations that Rita Skeeter had made against Black. Now, Molly Weasley did not think of herself as a gullible person, but accusations of child abuse were not something that she could just brush off no matter who they were coming from. Besides, even before Skeeter had put quill to parchment Molly had been worried about the injury Harry had gotten during the Quidditch World Cup, and Black's insistence on getting him out of her sight the moment they came back.

No, as far as she was concerned, Black had a lot of explaining to do, though she had expected better from Lupin, an excellent teacher according to Percy. She fully intended to give the both of them a piece of her mind when they arrived, and a lot more than that if Black was hurting Harry.

A loud popping noise announced the arrival of the two men in the front yard of the Burrow. Compulsively brushing wrinkles out of her skirt, Molly opened the door to let them in.

Lupin greeted her pleasantly with a smile and a firm handshake, but it was Black she was looking at as she ushered them inside. He looked just like the criminal she supposed him to be, with his hair (much too long!) in a wild tangle about his face, and wearing a stormy glower that at once confirmed all of her worst suspicions about him.

She offered them tea. Lupin accepted and thanked her with a smile, whereas Black's scowl only deepened as he took the cup in front of him without comment. Molly did not miss the warning look that Lupin shot Black across the table.

Molly sat down with her own cup of tea. "So." She looked from one to the other, fixing them with her gaze. "What did you want to speak to me about?"

Lupin lowered his teacup back onto his saucer, slowly. "We know you're worried about Harry," he said without preamble. "So are we, and Sirius—" he shot another look at Black, "—was hoping that you'd be able to help, since you know Harry and have children of your own."

To tell the truth, Molly was somewhat taken aback by this declaration. She made no effort to hide the surprise in her voice as she looked at Black, raising an eyebrow. "You're worried about Harry? Are you really, now?"

Black's chair clattered to the floor as he leapt to his feet. "If you think that you're the only person in the world who cares about Harry then you've—"

"Sirius." For a moment Black stood there, fists clenched so tightly on the tabletop it looked as if his knuckles were about to burst through the skin. His mouth worked furiously as though he would very much like to say more, but Lupin was still giving him that look as if reminding him of something and after a few very tense moments Black picked up his chair and threw himself back into it.

Lupin turned back to her. "You see, Molly," he said, all manners and affability now though his voice was quite firm, "we're aware that you think Sirius is mistreating Harry." Black snorted derisively. "Given some of the circumstances," Lupin continued, ignoring him, "I cannot say that I blame you. But you must believe me when I tell you you've got the wrong end of the stick entirely, and that Harry would not thank you for sending him back to his relatives."

"What are you—"

Black snorted again. "You really don't get it, do you?"

"You see," Lupin interrupted, giving Black a just-shut-up-and-let-me-do-the-talking kind of look, "you are correct in thinking Harry is being mistreated, and you need look no further than his aunt and uncle."

Molly felt as though she had suddenly frozen. "I—what?"

"Harry told us some things over the holiday," Lupin continued grimly. "He didn't act as though it were a big deal, but then Harry seems to think a lot of things are normal that—aren't."

"What kinds of things?"

"Did he ever tell you that he slept in a cupboard until the age of ten?" Black snarled. "Or that he had to cook and clean like a house-elf ever since he could walk? Well, he told me. Why do you think he wanted to live with me, eh? A perfect stranger, who'd just escaped from prison! Do you think I forced him, that I pressured him? I offered him a different home, I didn't think he'd take it, I thought he'd want to stay with his relatives, but I've never seen him happier than when he found out he'd be leaving them!" Black sat back again, breathing heavily.

Lupin looked at Molly with a puzzled expression. "You really didn't know any of this? Didn't your sons rescue Harry from his own bedroom two years ago?"

"Well, yes, but…" Molly thought back to that night, how angry she'd been with Ron and the twins for stealing the car, how worried she'd been when they'd disappeared in the dead of night without even leaving a note… Of course she'd been worried about Harry too, had wondered why he hadn't written back to Ron for weeks on end, but in the end her anger at her own sons had driven her thoughts about Harry's welfare right out of her mind. "They didn't tell me much about… anything."

"Did they tell you that Harry's relatives were starving him?"

"Ron did." Molly's voice was barely a whisper. "But really, not a week goes by when Ron doesn't say we're starving him…"

"Ah yes," Lupin said with a slight smile, "growing boys will do that…" His face grew serious again. "The fact of the matter is, we don't know how much Harry went through while he was living in that house. Sirius and I both want to help him, but neither of us know how to go about it without making things worse. We thought that, if we asked the advice of someone who knows Harry, and who has a lot of experience dealing with children…" He looked at her intently. "So will you help us?"

Molly drew herself up to her full height. "Of course I'll help," she said. "What would you like to know?"

A/N: Wow, lots of drama in this chapter. I actually really enjoyed writing the conflict between Sirius and Remus, though I'm glad it got cleared up quickly (along with the one between Sirius and Molly). It was also a nice opportunity to answer a question I'd been wondering about for some time now, namely why after Sirius died in canon Remus didn't make any attempt to take Harry in. A bit of careful reasoning later, I concluded that it would very likely have been illegal - anti-werewolf prejudice and all.

I also like writing from Sirius's pov - he's one of those characters I really connect with from a writing standpoint. Molly, on the other hand, was difficult as hell - I hope I managed to write her believably.

I've had a few people ask what pairings will be in this fic. The answer is that right now, the only things I'm sure of are that Ron and Hermione will eventually end up together, and that this particular story will be slash-free. Ultimately, though, I'm not really a pairings writer (I much prefer platonic love), so while there might be a bit of romance going on off to the side, it won't in any way be the main focus of the story.

Just a quick note on how I answer reviews: While I appreciate feedback, I don't have the time to write a reply to every single review. So my rule of thumb is that if someone expresses a specific comment or concern that I can answer in a few sentences without involving spoilers, I'll write a response. Otherwise, know that I do appreciate receiving thoughtful reviews even if I can't reply!

restoringthehistory - I'm assuming that Vernon and Petunia never told Harry the facts of life, and that Hogwarts doesn't have anything resembling a sex ed program. I know that it's still pretty flimsy reasoning that Harry wouldn't know anything, but "The Talk" is a scene I really want to write so I hope the stretch will be forgiven.

Taylor1991 and Tamira - Thank you for the fairly detailed feedback on every chapter. I appreciate it!

Taylor1991 - I don't know how exactly Rita found out that stuff about Sirius, but I'm sure she's capable of it - never underestimate Skeeter's ability to dig up dirt.

Tamira - Hermione probably told Harry and Ron about the time-turner offscreen; I just didn't judge it as being an important enough scene to include in the fic. I think Hedwig only stayed at the Burrow until they were through hammering out Dudley's diet - she's a loyal familiar; she'd want to come back to Harry at some point. Hagrid was keeping the motorbike; he returned it after Sirius was found innocent. The scene with Dobby just picked up from the parallel scene in GoF; I'm sorry if this caused confusion.

Continuing to call Remus by his last name was deliberate on my part, since the story is being told from Harry's pov and I know that it can be very awkward to get on a first-name basis with a former teacher. Right now he's still thinking of Remus as "Lupin" even though he's calling him by his first name, but this will change in later chapters as Harry gets more comfortable with it.

QueenSunset - Yeah, most of Sirius's canine antics in this chapter are based off of a dog I had years and years ago - he actually did open presents with his teeth. Thanks for the continued reviews!