"Uncle Remus used to tell me about Sirius. He was Dad's best friend in school. They got into trouble a lot!"

Lily laughed, remembering all the stupid things that the Gryffindor boys did together. "Yes, Harry. You really didn't want to accept any gift from them outside of your birthday and Christmas. It probably was a silly prank."

"Uncle Remus told me that Sirius is sick. His mind went bad. You're helping him get better?"

"Yes, and if all goes well, you'll be helping too. I'm sure Remus has also informed you that he is your godfather. He wants to see you. That's where we're going today."

"Remus didn't tell me that. What's a godfather?"

"Well, in typical cases, he would have been your legal guardian when your dad and I weren't around, but since he got sick, you had to go to your Aunt Petunia's."

Harry was silent for a few moments as he processed this. "Is Severus my godfather now?"

Lily brushed away the boy's growing hair from his eyes, making a mental note to get it cut. "No, baby. Sirius is still your godfather. Severus is now your stepfather."

Harry's eyebrows creased in confusion. "What's the difference?"

Lily scrunched up her face some, thinking of how to explain. "I guess there's not much of a difference for you. You can think of Sirius more like an uncle, as you do with Remus if you'd like."

"Mum?" Harry's voice got quiet.

"What is it?"

"If something happens to you again, will I be sent away to Sirius if he gets better?"

Lily shook her head. "No, sweety, remember, Severus adopted you. You're legally his son now."

Harry let out a sigh of relief. "Good, because I love Severus!"

Lily smiled. "I know you do, and he loves you too!"

As if he knew he was the current topic on hand, Severus entered the kitchen from his Potions cellar. He had been fairly quiet that morning, not entirely too happy with what his wife and Harry were going to do after lunch.

He made himself a sandwich, and Harry couldn't help noticing that the man was in a mood.

"What's wrong, Severus?"

"Nothing," Severus simply answered as he sat down and took a bite of his lunch.

"You're lying," Harry stated softly. "I know you're upset about something."

Severus sighed. "Eat your lunch, Harry."

"You don't want us to go today, do you?"

Severus briefly closed his eyes, counting numbers in his head to keep calm. "Your mother has the day planned for you and your godfather."

Harry's eyes went from his mother to Severus. Mum's lips were pressed together, glaring at Severus, while Severus was concentrating more on his sandwich.

"You don't like Sirius," Harry clued in.

"It does not matter who I like or don't like, Harry."

"Why don't you like him? What's wrong with him?"

Severus didn't respond and continued to eat. He took a long drink of his Firewhiskey.

"I'm not going," Harry suddenly decided, crossing his arms over his chest. "Not if it's going to make Severus sad."

"You're going to see your godfather, Harry," Severus announced in a tone he was not to argue with.

"I don't want to be around anyone that you don't like!"

Harry," Lily spoke up softly. "Sirius and Severus didn't get along well in school-" Here, Severus grunted and stood up, finished with his meal. He took his plate to the sink, rinsing it. "-they didn't like each other much."

Harry watched Severus closely as the man went back to the cellar door.

"You two have a good visit," he said and slipped back into his cellar.

"Severus didn't like my dad either," Harry said quietly, afraid of Severus overhearing even though a door and a case of stairs separated them.

"No," Lily smiled softly at Harry. "Your dad and his friends fought with Severus quite a bit in their youth. No one could get them to see eye-to-eye."

"Did they punch each other?"

Lily tilted her head, curious as to why the boy would even ask that. "Why do you think that?"

Harry looked down at his unbeaten food. "I think they hurt him."

Lily nodded slightly, amazed with her son's intuition. "A few times they got into fistfights, yes," she admitted. "A lot of their fighting was done with spells though, and Severus could defend himself awfully well." She didn't tell her son that Severus didn't really start off that great in their first year, often becoming a victim to James and his friends. He learned how to protect himself in their second year though, to the point where the Gryffindor boys wouldn't have been a good match unless they gained up on him.

"They were mean to him," Harry summarized his thoughts.

"Severus and your father just didn't agree on things, Harry. You fight with Dudley, and you fight with Draco, it was similar to that."

Harry shook his head. "That's not right. Severus hates Sirius, and before they were friends, he hated Uncle Remus too! And I don't hate Draco or Dudley. Sometimes we don't get along that's all, but we're always friends."

Lily sighed softly, seeing no way to make the boy think different, and it wasn't that she wanted to. It was the truth, after all, James and his friends had been terribly horrible to Severus.

She stood up from her seat. "Hurry up and finish your meal, Harry." He hadn't touched his food since Severus had told him to eat.

Harry complied with his mother's request, but since she didn't correct him on his statement, he knew he had been right. Severus had been hurt by his Dad and his friends, and Harry could tell that his mum did not want him to know this, but she didn't want to lie about it either.

"Harry." Sirius's voice croaked when the boy stepped into his room. Lily had a hold of Harry's hand since he was a little wary of the man. "Merlin, you look just like your father," he noted tearfully.

"He's just as snarky as Prongs was too," Remus informed, winking at Harry.

Harry let a shy smile spread across his lips. He was a little nervous, but his mum and Remus were here. They wouldn't let anything bad happen to him.

Sirius walked to him and knelt to one knee. His hands shook as he took the boy's head into them, studying his face. "You're okay," he whispered in heavy relief, and he then embraced Harry into a hug and wept.

Harry went stiff, not knowing what to do. He did the first thing that came to his mind and tapped Sirius on his arm to comfort him. "Why are you crying?" he wondered.

"I'm just so happy!" Sirius sobbed.

"Why don't we sit down?" Lily offered. And they all sat, with Harry in his mum's lap.

Sirius kept staring at Harry, making him feel uncomfortable. A lot of people stared at him, and he still wasn't used to it. Severus had told him it was because he stopped an evil Dark wizard when he was a baby. Harry didn't quite understand how he had done that. He didn't even remember doing it. He sure wished people would stop staring at him though.

"Do you like playing gobstones, Harry?" Sirius asked. It had been his favourite game when he was young.

"Sometimes, but I like chess better. I'm not very good though. Severus is a much better player than me."

Sirius narrowed his eyes. He looked at Lily. "As in Snape?"

"As in Snape," she confirmed simply, hugging her son to her chest.

The man shook his head in disbelief. "Why is my godson around a Death Eater?" he asked calmly, though he was having issues controlling his emotions, his voice was awfully bitter.

"Severus adopted me," Harry announced, causing Remus to stand as Sirius uprooted from his seat at the news.

"He what?!"

"Padfoot-"

"Don't even start with me Moony," Sirius growled. "James's son is being raised by that slimy, whiny, git. How could you let this-"

"Severus is not a git!" Harry shouted, defending the man who had saved his life. "He's a nice man, and he loves me. So you can just shut up about him!"

Lily pulled Harry toward the door. The boy was still shouting. "And you're mean! I don't like you! You hurt Severus real bad!"

"Wait!" Sirius begged as Lily pushed Harry out into the hall to calm him down, Remus blocked Sirius from walking toward them. "No, please! Don't go!"

Lily closed her eyes and shut the door so that Remus could talk with Sirius. She took in a shuddering breath and looked down at her son. Harry was glaring intensely at the door with his arms crossed along his chest.

"That man is a jerk!" Harry grumbled.

Lily didn't disagree, but she felt she had to say something to ease Harry's mind about his godfather. She brushed back the boy's hair, furrowing her eyebrows, thinking how Sirius had reacted. Maybe she should have broken the news to him about Severus before bringing Harry to see him.

"Sirius is stuck in the past," Lily explained to Harry. "He hasn't seen the good side of Severus yet."

Harry blinked as his mind made sense of what she said. "Do you mean that Severus has a bad side to him?"

Lily raked a hand through her hair, growing irritated with herself by the second. She had never met a boy who was so wise. "Baby, we all have bad sides," she craftily told him. "None of us are perfect." She sat down in a chair, motioning for Harry to join her.

"Do you remember how Hogwarts is divided into four houses?"

He nodded. "My dad was a Gryffindor, and so were you! Severus was a Slytherin."

"Yes, well Sirius was also a Gryffindor, and he was a very simple-minded one. He thought everyone who was sorted into Slytherin was a bad person."

Harry nodded slowly, realizing what his mother was saying. "But just because you're a Slytherin, doesn't mean you're bad," Harry told her quietly, deeply affected by the news.

"Yes, you're a smart boy, and mama is very proud of you for knowing this. Some people never learn this. Anyway, the Gryffindors and the Slytherins were enemies, and that's why Sirius doesn't like Severus."

"And that's why they all fought!" Harry realized.

Lily smiled, giving her son a nod. She didn't need to tell him that both Severus and James had been fighting for Lily's affection. She thought he was too young to understand that.

"Maybe Hogwarts shouldn't divide kids apart like that," Harry suggested thoughtfully.

"My, sweet boy, it doesn't matter if there are houses or not, people naturally divide themselves."

"Yeah," he agreed after a thought. "Wizards are divided from Muggles for one."

She kissed the top of Harry's head, hugging him to her. "You're so smart, Harry. I love you."

He giggled. "Severus said I got my smarts from you!"

Lily hummed in doubt. She didn't say anything about it, but her son got a lot of his thought process from Severus.

She told Harry to stay put and went to the door of Sirius's room, calling for Remus.

"I want to talk to Sirius alone," Lily declared. "You wouldn't mind taking Harry for some ice cream, would you?"

Remus smiled, slipping out into the hall. "Of course not."

"Mum?" Harry questioned her, wanting to know what was going on.

"Remus is going to take you out for a treat while I stay here. I need to talk to Sirius." She was going to set the man straight, one way or a-ruddy-nother!

AN : Yep its been a while. Figured I would try to update all my WIPs during the quarantine since everyone is stuck at home.

Review Responses:

badkidoh: Thanks! :)

Estel Ashlee Snape: Well, this chapter kinda showed how their meeting went. Not well :P

marthapreston4: I like to picture Lily a semi-forgiving person. But yeah... that's a messy situation.

To the Guests: Here's your update you wanted, thanks for reading/reviewing!

darklordashes: It's not abandoned, just... I have a lot of writing to do, and so little time to do it :P

cmtaylor531: Thank you very much! I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the reading.

stuovam: Hi, thank you for your review. Lily is definitely infuriating, I can totally understand your frustrations. Haha :) I really love a good Lucius character!

Ravenclaw-Slytherin-Erudite: It's not a terribly huge age gap. I know several people who have that kinda age gap who get along alright.