Harry and Snape walked silently towards the one of gates leaving Hogwarts' grounds. They had spent Harry's detentions in utter silence, Snape just pointing at the cauldrons he wanted cleaned. Harry felt as if the man regretted what he'd said, but was far too proud to say anything. Harry was sure any attempt to make conversation now would lead to disaster, since he was sure Snape wasn't happy that he was being forced to escort Harry to see his Uncle.

They passed the boundary and quietly stood for a few moments, before a large shaggy black dog emerged from the forest. Snape gave Harry a brief nod, and continued on to Hogesmeade. Harry wondered if he'd actually planned on going there, or if it was a face saving measure.

While he was staring after Snape the dog transformed into his Uncle.

'Its lovely to see you mate, how are you?' Sirius asked, beaming.

'I'm alright Sirius, just got a lot on my mind.' Harry replied, returning the hug offered by his godfather.

'A lot on your mind! Come on Harry, your far too young to be an angsty teen. Is this Snape's doing?' Sirius said, his face twisting.

'He's one thing on my mind. Should we walk?' Harry said, and they walked back into the Hogwarts grounds. It wasn't an enormous problem if they were spotted, Aurors couldn't enter Hogwarts without the Headmaster's permission, but it was probably for the best if they weren't, so Harry asked if he could be let out of class to meet Sirius. He could have met him in the Headmasters Office or 12 Grimmauld place, but he wanted to have a clear head, and the early March air would be enough for that.

'You have the cloak, right?' Sirius asked.

'Huh?' Harry asked, confused for a moment. 'Oh yeah, yeah I do.' Harry said pulling it a bit out of his pocket.

'Knew Dumbledore had it, and he promised to give it to you once you came to Hogwarts. You use it much?'

'Just a couple of times.' Harry said, and Sirius looked disappointed for a moment.

'The stuff we got up after Lily lent it to James!' He said wistfully, before switching tone. 'We terrorised the school, with the map and the cloak together we were unstoppable. Lily was a lot like you I guess, serious, so she didn't find much use for it.'

'The map?'

Sirius blushed slightly.

'Wasn't meant to mention that, I'm going to give it to you for your birthday, you'll find out then.'

'Alright.' Harry said, and an awkward silence pervaded for a bit before Harry decided to supply his Uncle with a story. 'I mentioned in my letter that I beat Hermione in a duel and then became friends with her right?' Sirius nodded and Harry continued. 'It was a bit more complicated than that. I upset her by pretending to cast the severing charm, Draco and Ron spoke up to defend me and she felt attacked so she fled the room. I chased her down and found her being bullied in the girls bathroom, these three older girls were saying all this stuff about her being a muggleborn and her having no friends and stuff.'

'Bloody hell, and what did you do?'

'Well I got them to leave.'

'You got them to leave the girls bathroom, how?'

'Er, you know, I threatened them and stuff.'

'You're mental mate.' Sirius said, wrapping an arm around Harry and drawing him close to him.

'So yeah anyway I talked to her, and I wanted to make sure no one else bothered me and her so we got under the cloak and went to see Hagrid.'

'Sounds great mate.' Sirius said smiling, and then released Harry. 'What was it you wanted to talk about?'

Harry took a deep breath.

'I told you about my friend Blaise, and his dad right?'

'Yeah, and I read about it in the papers too.'

'Dumbledore wasn't planning on getting his lot to vote against the deportation, so I convinced him. I told him that if he voted against it, I'd convince you to adopt me and normalise your status so you can vote in the Wizengamot.' Sirius looked aghast and Harry continued on quickly. 'I was going to ask you anyway, so you could normalise your status, but I felt like this was the only way to convince Dumbledore.'

'Don't get me wrong Harry, I'd love to adopt you, but I've really not wanted to go to the Wizengamot. To have to sit side by side with the people who killed James, and countless others? I'd rather not.'

'I mean I understand, but like they need you in there, and there's no one else that can do it.'

Sirius squared his shoulders.

'Harry, do you think I'm acting like a coward?'

Harry blew some air out of his lips, that turned to fog in the cold air.

'I don't know what's going on with you, but there's something wrong. You've been in that house too long, I know you get out as the dog, or disguised, but it can't be good for you.'

Sirius nodded.

'I think I've fallen into a real rut Harry, these past few years, since I got out of Azkaban really, but especially recently with the ministry pursuing me again. I've ended up putting myself in another prison.'

Sirius look miserable, as they plodded through the grass. Harry didn't really know what to do. Hug him? That was probably the right answer but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

'Hey Sirius, if you agree to do it, I'll give you some news that'll make you furious instead of miserable.'

Harry's uncle gave a brittle laugh.

'There was no chance I was ever going to say no, but go on Harry.'

'Snape told me that Remus is a werewolf.'

Sirius' face, already pink from the cool air rapidly turned red.

'That snivelling little lowlife bastard, how fucking dare he? How fucking dare he?' Sirius shouted.

He continued like this for some time.