A/N: Sorry for the delay, I've been on a cruise and it's finals week! Here's the next chapter - also, this won't be the last time we hear from Lucy... I'm not sure that I would consider this my best written chapter, but why not throw in some teenage angst? Please keep reviewing!
"Ah, Lucy!" Harry heard Remus yell from the doorway. Hermione, Ron, and him were hidden in the sitting room, where they could hear the conversation from the kitchen without being seen. Harry didn't want to ruin his father's chance of catching up with an old friend, but he was very against the idea of someone new potentially joining their family when he hadn't even met her.
"Hey Remus," a soft voice spoke and then everything went quiet. Harry assumed Remus and her were hugging.
After a moment, Remus spoke again. "Come this way, there's someone who wants to see you."
"Oh I was so happy when I heard last year, Remus! I knew Sirius would never betray James." Harry heard Lucy say. Their voices were growing louder as they approached the kitchen and Harry tried to peer out the doorway to get a look at the mystery girl.
"Yeah, I think everyone realized that after it was too late… but speaking of James, Harry's around here somewhere, would you like to see him really quickly?" Remus asked, less than five feet from the sitting room door.
Harry turned back to Ron and Hermione looking panicked. Ron mirrored his facial expression and Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Harry! You can face a basilisk but you won't meet one of your parents' old friends?"
"Not when she might have the hots for my dad!" Harry hissed, grabbing the invisibility cloak that he had brought down from his room earlier and throwing it over the three of them. Hermione immediately took it off herself and the door opened before Harry or Ron could pull her back under.
"Oh hey, Hermione," Remus said with a gentle smile. "I thought I heard Harry in here, where did Ron and him go?"
Hermione gave the space beside her a glare and Remus caught on immediately. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure he'll show up eventually. Come and join us in the kitchen if you would like."
Hermione nodded and thanked Remus and he shut the door again. Remus had been standing in front of Lucy, so Harry didn't see her. He heard the two continue on to the kitchen - after a moment, Harry's curiosity got the best of him.
"I'm going in to listen, are you two coming?" Harry asked, removing the invisibility cloak and turning to Ron and Hermione.
"No, Harry! Let's just stay in here," Hermione said, attempting to snatch the cloak out of his hands.
"I'm going, Hermione," Harry said, standing up and walking towards the door Remus had just closed. "You coming, mate?" He asked, turning towards Ron.
Ron gave Hermione a nervous look and shook his head. "Go ahead mate, I'll keep Hermione company."
Harry nodded and threw the cloak over him again before walking out of the room and slipping into the kitchen. What he saw when he walked in did not help his nerves - Lucy had practically jumped in Sirius's arms in her attempt to hug him. Sirius looked happy, but also a little conflicted. Remus, on the other hand, was snickering loudly at his friend's predicament.
From what Harry could see of Lucy, she was medium-sized and skinny, with freckled, tan skin and light brown hair. When Sirius and her broke apart, he noticed she had very pretty, petite features and light blue eyes, similar to Sirius's; the main difference was Sirius's eyes often took on a grey hue, whereas her's looked like the sky.
Harry had been studying her so intently that he missed the first part of their conversation. He went to move to the other end of the kitchen where he was less likely to be bumped into; however, this proved to be a mistake. As soon as Harry took a step, Remus moved in the opposite direction - the two hit shoulders and Remus immediately looked down to see what caused it.
"What is it, Remus?" Lucy asked, staring at him in concern. Sirius was too busy looking in the fridge to notice that Remus was reaching out into thin air.
"I felt something," Remus mumbled, a knowing glint in his eye while he studied the exact spot Harry was standing.
"I've always said Moony was losing his mind," Sirius said, chuckling and pulling out a butterbeer for Lucy.
"At least I'm not crazy enough to eavesdrop on two Marauders," Remus said quietly, sending a wicked smile in Harry's direction before joining Lucy and now Sirius at the table.
Sirius laughed. "Are you talking about what Harry did this morning? Maybe we should have pranked him, it would have been pretty funny for him to introduce himself to Lucy with elephant ears."
Lucy smiled and shook her head, laughing. "I don't even want to know what happened this morning, but tell me about Harry. What's he like? And tell me about yourself! It's been so long."
Sirius smirked slightly and took a shot of the firewhiskey he had been nursing for an hour now. "There's not much to tell about me. Harry on the other hand is fantastic - he looks just like James, but acts more like Lily I think. He's going to be in his fifth year at Hogwarts next year and he plays on the Quidditch team, of course. I'm sure he'll get captain at some point too."
Lucy nodded and then hesitated. "I… I heard about the tournament. Are the rumors true?"
Sirius went slightly rigid at the mention of the tournament, so Remus stepped in to help. "What rumors have you heard? Because they are more than likely untrue, but it would be nice to know what the Ministry's spreading."
Lucy told them about how Harry had made up some crazy story about a death-eater to cover up him accidently killing Cedric and how the ministry plans to send Harry away to Azkaban. Sirius's demeanor changed while she retold what she had heard, and he looked much less welcoming by the end of it.
"None of that rubbish is true," Sirius growled, his grey eyes turning stormy. "Speaking of which, I should probably go spend some time with him, but it was good to see you."
Sirius went to stand up and Lucy looked surprise at his quick change in demeanor. Before either could do anything else, Remus spoke. "You won't need to go far to find him."
Sirius looked at him confused, before understanding what he meant and looking up. It was at that moment that Harry realized the toe of his shoe was sticking out of the cloak. Both Remus and Sirius were looking at it with a smirk - he had been caught.
"I'll go see if I can find him and send him in here, Sirius. You two, however, haven't seen each other in fourteen years, catch up some." Remus said, looking directly at Harry and nodding towards the door.
Lucy looked thoroughly confused throughout the entire exchange, but then snapped out of it again at the prospect of sitting alone with Sirius for a few minutes. "Yeah, Sirius. I have so much I want to talk to you about."
Sirius looked in Harry's direction almost longingly, but Remus stood up and began to walk towards the door, and Harry knew he would have to follow. Quietly, to avoid Lucy noticing, he followed Remus out and upstairs to his room.
Once they got there, Remus closed the bedroom door and looked at the spot on the bed that was dipping down from Harry's weight, a smirk on his face. "I'm going to need you to take that cloak off now, please Harry."
Harry did as he was told but kept his eyes on the ground. Remus sat beside Harry on the bed and threw an arm around his shoulders. "What's gotten into you, I thought you wanted to meet Lucy?"
Harry shook his head and kept his eyes on the ground, despite Remus sounding pleasant and not upset. "Not if she… might like Sirius."
Remus's demeanor changed from humored to confused. "What do you mean?"
"I don't want to share him." Harry mumbled, embarrassed.
At this, Remus smiled again and nodded. "I see… well, let's wait and see what Sirius thinks after their exchange today. Give her a chance, Harry. You might find that you enjoy her company a lot."
Harry nodded unenthusiastically before standing up and walking towards the door. "I'm going to find Ron and Hermione."
Remus nodded, still smiling slightly. "Alright, I'll join you. I want to give them a second alone."
The two walked downstairs into the sitting room to find Hermione complaining to Ron about the pointless nature of exploding snap. Harry and Remus joined in the conversation and waited for Sirius and Lucy to finish talking.
"Come on, Sirius, tell me a little about you." Lucy said almost pleadingly.
"What is there to tell?" Sirius mumbled, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Not to be depressing, but I was stuck in a dark cell with nothing to do for fourteen years… I haven't exactly been up to much."
Lucy fell silent and looked down at her lap. Sirius felt a little guilty about not attempting to engage her in conversation, but truth be told he wasn't really interested in picking up where they left off.
"I'm sorry," Lucy mumbled after a moment of silence. "I should have believed you… we were all so stupid. I wish things could go back to… back to the way they were."
Sirius snorted and Lucy looked affronted. "What?" She asked defensively.
Sirius shook his head before responding. "They can't go back and there's no point wasting time wishing they could. Trust me, I did plenty of that in prison."
Lucy glared at him for a moment. "Why are you being like this? You used to be so carefree… but you were never apathetic. It's like you don't even want to acknowledge that we… we…"
Sirius shook his head again and downed another shot of firewhiskey. "Sorry if it offends you, but I was stuck in a cell with all of my worst memories practically drowning me for twelve years - it's hard to be carefree when you constantly see the dead face of your best friend, or your father beating you, or Hagrid taking away Harry…" Sirius trailed of and shuddered for a moment, closing his eyes and putting his head on the table.
Neither of them spoke for a moment. Sirius lifted his head from the table and noticed Lucy had tears in her eyes - again, he felt a pang of guilt. "Sorry, Lucy… I just… I'm not interested, okay? I want you to meet and get to know Harry because I think he would like that, but I don't want a girlfriend again now."
"I know things can't be the way they were immediately, but couldn't you just consider it, Sirius? It might help us both - you weren't the only one that lost a bestfriend that night, you know." Lucy said, biting back the anger in her voice.
Sirius still shook his head. "There's more to it than that, Lucy. I've got Harry to think about now, I'm not just going to get a girlfriend out of nowhere and not give him any attention; With the tournament and this trial, he needs me."
Lucy sighed and nodded before standing up. "Just… think about it, okay? I'll wait until the trial is over to meet Harry, I don't want to burden him, but please keep in touch."
Sirius smiled his first genuine smile at her that day and nodded. "Of course I will. And you won't burden Harry, but I'm not sure that today will be the best day to meet him. Swing by for dinner sometime soon, I'll send an owl with a proper invitation."
Lucy returned his smile and nodded, then they both stood. He walked past the sitting room, an arm around Lucy's shoulders in his normal friendly nature, and led her to their door. When they were on the front porch, she leaned up to kiss his cheek and whispered a "goodbye Siri," before apparating away, leaving a thoroughly conflicted man in her wake.
After a moment of collecting himself, Sirius returned back inside and sat in the sitting room beside his son, who was now playing a rigorous game of Wizard's chess against Ron. Harry tensed when Sirius put an arm around him, and Sirius knitted his brow in confusion. Harry had shown significant improvement since leaving the Dursley's, and Remus and Sirius had worked hard to rid him of the emotional scars their abuse left behind - so why was Harry acting afraid of him now, practically a year later?
"Puppy?" Sirius whispered gently, trying to get Harry's attention - Harry didn't acknowledge him though, and continued to focus on the chess game.
Sirius looked up at Remus pleadingly and Remus knew exactly what to do. "Alright Ron and Hermione, I'm sure your parents are wondering where you are by now… I hate to break up such a good game of wizard's chess, but I'm sure you'll be back over here in a few days time."
Hermione nodded, understanding Remus's intentions, but Ron looked indignant. "Awh, Professor! It's only-"
"Ron, do you really want to deal with your mother's wrath tonight?" Hermione warned, standing up and grabbing her jumper before leading Ron to the fireplace and flooing to the Burrow.
Harry looked up at Remus, confused, but Sirius cleared his throat and cut him off before he could ask anything. "Is there something bothering you, Harry?"
Harry looked down at his lap while Remus excused himself from the room, wanting Harry to share with his father what he had told him earlier.
After a few more moments of silence, Sirius tried again. "Puppy," he said gently, tilting Harry's head up with his hand. "Tell me what's wrong."
Harry felt his face flush red and he attempted to look away, though that was hard to do when Sirius was grasping his chin. "You'll laugh at me."
Harry half-expected Sirius to point out Harry's stupidity for being embarrassed, but he didn't - instead he just sat there, cradling Harry's chin in his hand and giving his son a soft smile. "I'll try my best not to laugh."
Harry took a deep breath and met his father's grey eyes. "It's just… I don't like Lucy much."
If Sirius was surprised by Harry's blunt declaration, he didn't show it - instead, his smile turned into a bit of a smirk and he chuckled. "And why is that?"
Harry was disconcerted about Sirius's reaction - he had expected him to get angry for not giving his once true love a chance. "I just… I don't want…"
Harry took a deep breath and looked away. How was he supposed to tell his dad that the reason he didn't want him to get a girlfriend is because he didn't want to share him? He would sound like a child; it was bad enough that Harry's nightmares practically restrained him from sleeping in his own bed, why did he have to behave entirely like a toddler?
"Go on," Sirius said, the smirk still playing on his features.
"I know I told you to invite Lucy over today - and I really did want to meet her then. I want to know more about my parents and she seemed like she would be good for that… and well, I also want you to be happy and have your friend back. But then Hermione came over and started talking about her and you getting married and being happy together and I… I got… er…" Harry trailed off and managed to loosen his chin from Sirius's grip so he could look away.
"First, Lucy and I are not getting back together, so get the marriage rubbish out of your head," Sirius said, ruffling Harry's hair and smiling when the boy laughed a little. "Second…" Sirius trailed off, a wicked smile playing on his worn, but handsome features. He wrapped Harry into a huge bear hug and pulled him close, laughing when Harry tried to squirm away from him. "I know I am pretty great, but there's no need to get jealous of Lucy… I'm all yours for the rest of my life, okay kiddo?"
Harry smiled at his father's antics and attempted to playfully push him away, but he couldn't deny the reassurance he felt at Sirius's words. After a few moments of struggling against his godfather's arms, he allowed himself to be buried in Sirius's embrace, and mumbled, "I love you, Padfoot."
"I love you too, puppy. Now let's go find Remmy so I can tell him what a terrible idea it was to try and find a girlfriend for me." Sirius said, barking a laugh and releasing Harry from his death grip. "Honestly, me settling down? You would have more luck convincing Dumbledore to be a Death Eater."