After Umbridge's drama-filled return and Professor Kale's sudden departure, Harry was sure that the rest of the week leading up to his talk with Sirius would be just as chaotic.

That the new teachers minus Firenze would reveal themselves to be just as twisted as Umbridge, and the annoyed glares they had been sending The Toad as she sat in everyone's classes to 'review' the teachers were just fake glares to try and win the students over to the Ministry's side. No one believed that Umbridge was simply 'reviewing' the teachers to find more bad eggs. But they couldn't speak up about, not when there were new fish in the churning waters of Hogwarts social ladder to worry about.

But the new fish had quickly proven that they were decent teachers, possibly even good teachers. Professor Sliver was still following the Ministry's rules for Defense Against the Dark Arts, but she would often encourage the students to research how other wizards defended themselves in history by using the basic structure of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Going so far as to assign essays daily that forced them to think about the building blocks behind the spell they used or tried to use. It was a stifling learning process, but it gave them something to look up and possible practice at the DA meetings.

Apparently, Professor Mackerson was a decent Astronomy teacher, but given how Harry didn't take the subject himself he couldn't tell for sure and could only take Ginny's word.

So, that was one good thing out of the horrible start of the week. The other good thing was that Firenze was a surprisingly good Divination teacher, scoffing at the teachings Professor—or rather, Miss Trelawney had taught them before she had been removed from her position as a teacher. It was an interesting first lesson and at the end of class Harry found himself considering to studying Divination much more seriously despite his stance on the subject.

Other than that, the week had been unnervingly normal. Almost as if whatever had haunted the castle had decided to leave at Umbridge's return and find some other school to harass. Many were still on high alert, waiting for the spirits to resume their mischief but others were relieved that they could focus on their lessons and homework without having to worry about Umbridge setting them off and disrupting a class.

Harry bit back a sigh of frustration as he tried to complete his homework only to spill his inkpot all over his Potions essay.

"Careful Harry," Hermione chided but it was quiet, sober even as she lazily cast the cleanup spell before returning to her studies.

"What's got your knickers tied up in a knot?" Ron joked, his mood finally returning to something close to normal as he attempted to work on his essay on mood charms. "Got a secret someone to meet up with?"

"No, I'm supposed to meet Padfoot," Harry replied, dropping his voice to a whisper as he lowered his quill. His mind spinning with 'what ifs' and the slight dread of being caught.

"What time?" Hermione asked, perking up a little as she scanned the common room. It was oddly empty despite it being a few moments after dinner ended, but only a handful of Gryffindors were lurking around the common room. Fred and George were attempting to secretly test their sweets on a few gullible Second Years, Ginny was doing homework while murmuring to that odd little stuffed owl that had recently joined her, Ness was reading a book no doubt sent from home and a couple of Third years were playing chess.

"Around ten, I'm going up to Shrieking Shack." Harry hesitated before adding, "We're going to be meeting in person, to talk about what's happened over the month."

Hermione and Ron exchanged surprised looks before focusing on Harry. Hermione looking worried while Ron looked confused.

"You mentioned our fight?" Hermione asked, subtly inclining her head in Ginny's direction to try and state it was about Ness without cluing Ron in.

"Fight? You two got into a fight?" Ron asked but Harry ignored him. "Sort of, I mostly talked to him about my discoveries before he decided we should meet up in person."

"Sort of? When did this happen?" Ron tried but Hermione quickly interjected, "Good!" before lowering her voice with a flush of embarrassment when the Third Years glanced over at them in surprise. "I mean, it's good that your talking to someone outside of the problem for some insight or advice."

"Padfoot probably told you to stop searching for Voldemort, didn't he?" Ron grumbled before hissing, "And what is this about a fight?!"

"Yes, Padfoot told me to stop, but only because he said I was making everything worse." Harry answered, hating how he found himself leaning away from Ron as a scowl appeared on the red head's face. "Also, it wasn't really a fight, Hermione and I just got into a disagreement when we were walking to Hogsmeade."

"Honestly, Ron. The only reason we didn't mention it to you was because you were so busy gushing about Edgecombe and complaining about Earthbound." Hermione added, rolling her eyes as Ron tried to argue but stopped. Glancing at Ness who was now scribbling something on a piece of parchment.

It was…sort of odd as Ron backed off. Grumbling, "Oh yea," before changing the topic ro ways to sneak Harry and Crookshanks—the only cat who could calm the Whomping Willow—out of the castle without anyone noticing and asking questions.

Hermione begrudgingly allowed Harry to use the plan of Fred and George's testing going awry and slipping out in the chaos that would ensue once Hermione went over to put a stop to it.

Sneaking out with Crookshanks stopped being a problem once the battered cat heard that he was visiting Padfoot. The cat's grumpy attitude doing a complete 180 and saying something amusing because Ness suddenly started snickering and shaking his head in disbelief.

Harry ended up leaving a bit early since the window of opportunity came seconds after Crookshanks seemingly agreed to be carried by Harry under the invisibility cloak. The twins had managed to test something a bit too scandalous for even the gullible First and Seconds Years to handle that prompted a First Year to try and fight them for his friend's honor.

"Merlin's beard!" Hermione cursed, flying out of her chair to give the twins an earful before assigning Ron to escort the now purple and blue victim to Madam Pomfrey with the twins' antidote.

"Alright, settle down. You aren't going to die." Ron clumsily assured the crying student, grimacing as their choked wails grew louder and someone screamed that 'James' was going to die.

"He isn't going to die!" Hermione stated, "Remain calm everyone!" before grumbling under her breath, "A certain pair of Weasleys' however…"

In the chaos, Harry sprinted to his bed to grab his invisibility cloak and Crookshanks who gave a grumpy half meow at being abrutply picked up before falling silent as Harry followed Ron who had finally coaxed James and his friend to leave the Common Room and to relax since he was a prefect.

Harry caught a snippet of, "Aren't you the bad prefect?" from James's friend but he didn't stop to hear what else James' friend might say. Instead he was focused on staying low to the ground to keep his feet hidden and moving as fast as he could with Crookshanks towards the courtyard.

If he had lingered, he probably would have seen Ron flinch and pale a little as the student rehashed of Ron's attempted assault on Earthbound for an outlandish reason blown up by the winter rumor storm to his curious friend.

But he didn't, blissfully unaware of how badly the rumors had gotten as he stopped and surveyed the empty courtyard for Flitch or Hagrid before letting Crookshanks down on the slush covered ground and tightening the cloak around him to stave off the cold.

Even though it was late March and spring was creeping around the corner, giving them warm bursts of sunshine and air. The night was still under winter's cruel grasp and determent to try and erase any hope of cool spring nights happening anytime soon.

"You're excited…" Harry murmured, breaking into a run as Crookshanks took off, easily finding the path he used to take to visit Sirius with an abundant amount of ease.

"Very excited." Harry corrected, watching in silent awe as Crookshanks weaved through the agitated branches of the Whomping Willow and pressed the knot at the base of the gnarled tree, soothing the branches immediately and allowing Harry to open the secret entrance and slip inside to begin walking long trek to the Shrieking Shack.

Apparently, someone had tried to block the corridor with man-made rubble or hexes as Harry found himself tripping and stumbling more than he remembered himself doing the first time he had taken the secret passageway. But it was clear that someone else had tried to limit the destruction since he and Crookshanks could still reach the abandoned building with relative ease.

The Shrieking Shack looked just as destroyed and abandoned as it did two years ago, the proof of Lupin's other form still fresh and the dust still unbearable as it angrily attacked his sinuses. Harry raised his wand and whispered, "Lumos." Reveal a small trail of footsteps heading into a room that was partially barricaded by a destroyed table and a wooden leg that probably belonged to said table.

Crookshanks eagerly headed over to the room, bypassing the barricade with ease. Harry, on the other hand, frowned before sighing and picking his way through the wreckage to find Sirius.

It was tempting to call out for him, maybe even yell. But Harry couldn't shake the pounding fear in his heart that this was a trap, or maybe even a mistake to come. Maybe he should double back and wait in—

"Harry!"

In Harry's defense, having the lights go from pitch black to a lantern yellow with a figure dressed all in black was very startling. So, it was a perfectly valid moment to give a small yelp of surprise and prepare to yell "Stupify" until he realized it was Sirius watching him with a lopsided grin.

"Sorry, sorry! Couldn't resist scaring you a bit." His Godfather cackled, "Merlin's beard! You definitely have your mother's reaction time. James liked put toads in her bag or try to hex her shoes to the point that if she sensed even a single hair out of place that she would spin around and hex James' mouth shut."

Harry blinked before allowing a small smile to form, "Really? She would hex his mouth shut?"

"Only if she was in a good mood." Sirius mirthfully admitted, reaching down to pet Crookshanks as he spoke. "If she were in a bad one, she'd hex a couple of her books to chase after him and bonk him on the head until Lupin or one of her friends could calm her down. Especially if she caught him trying to flirt with her after picking on Snape."

"It's so surreal to hear that mom used to be sort of friends with Snape…" Harry murmured, "Did…did she ever say why?"

"Possibly, but we were gits back then and only Lupin wasn't a big fan of the whole Gryffindor versus Slytherin debacle." Sirius replied his mirth subduing a bit, "Then again, that was probably because we've always dragged him into the middle of all of our arguments which did get a little physical at times."

"I suspect it's more than a little." Harry noted, smothering a laugh as Sirius shot him a mock scandalized look. "I'll have you know that we were grade O students during our time at Hogwarts!"

He shook his head but didn't comment, instead taking the opportunity to glance around the room which had been tidied up a bit. The room's original purpose appeared to be a small tearoom with an adjacent kitchen to easily serve guests.

Faded flowery wallpaper was peeling off the walls and the floor felt much smoother than the rest of the house, probably still stubbornly trying to hang onto its glory days. A lantern with a flickering light was resting on a small coffee table covered in small bags of sweet-smelling sweets and a water jug filled with butterbeer.

A pair of ornate but sadly shredded couches rested on opposite sides of the coffee table, but the damage had been mostly hidden thanks to a soft red blanket thrown over the dying couches.

"Molly threatened to kill me if I didn't tidy one of the rooms up before our meeting." Sirius stated rolling his eyes in annoyance, "She also forced some sweets on me, so you'd have something to nibble on. She's still complaining that you don't get enough to eat."

Harry nodded and replied, "It looks good." A little surprised by the small slump Sirius gave, it almost looked like a sign of relief before he realized Sirius was relived. Reminding him that this wasn't a simple chat by in fireplace in Gryffindor Tower. No, this was a conversation, a full one without the risks of getting interrupted by someone else in the tower or distracted by another problem.

This left Harry trapped to talk about problems and issues he wished didn't exist, so he scrambled for a safer topic before Sirius could start untangling Harry's thoughts.

"So um, how is everyone? In the Order?" Harry asked, sitting down on one of the couches as Sirius took the other and poured them glasses of butterbeer.

"Well, Lupin managed to take advantage of that fire storm you kids stirred up about Umbridge, pushing for to rollback a couple laws she put in place to 'help' other half bloods and people effected by werewolf curses." Sirius started, taking a sip from his glass as Harry did the same. Enjoying the feeling of warmth spreading out from his core and enveloping him in a nice warm hug.

"I've been working on being a law-abiding citizen by proving my innocence-,"

"Wait, that didn't get cleared up when Karma showed off his picture of Wormtail?!" Harry exclaimed, "It was in the news and everything!"

"Yes, well," Sirius sighed, "While that WAS a powerful piece of evidence and forced the Ministry to reevaluate my case and start looking for more evidence to disprove Karma's claim, it would also give the 'fanatics' more proof that Voldemort was preparing to come back given his attempt to hide and possibly turn you over to the Dark Lord when the time came."

"And…if that happened, then the Ministry's attempt of insisting that Voldemort doesn't exist would backfire. Even more so than ever since Hermione and Ginny got the article out about what happened," Harry realized.

A sour taste entering his mouth as Sirius nodded. "They've quietly called off the manhunt for me, but since it wasn't announced to the public it's still too dangerous for me to walk around without getting attacked by a law-abiding citizen doing his patriotic duty."

"That's awful."

"Isn't too bad, at least I'm not being hunted down like a dog." Sirius joked, cracking a small grin as Harry tried not to return it. He failed and ended up hiding it by taking another sip of his butterbeer as Crookshank shook his head at Sirius's bad joke.

"Molly's been busy with…Arthur." Sirius continued, a grim frown overtaking his smile, "The Muggles are doing a good job thus far and Arthur's been cleared for 'physical therapy'."

"Physical therapy means rebuilding a weak part of your body after a serious injury heals," Harry clarified. "Like, if you broke your leg you would need therapy to strengthen the muscles that had been resting and get used to walking again."

Sirius blinked at him before slowly nodding in understanding, "I guess that's why Molly was fussing and crying about the Muggles being too confusing and not doing their job correctly. Muggle healing is awfully slow."

"It works though." Harry countered before asking, "What does Mr. Weasley need to work on to get out of the hospital?"

"Apparently, some 'neuro'-cognitive exercises to help repair his peripheral nerve before they can start working on motor skills," Sirius recalled. "He's doing great though, Lupin and Tonks smuggled me into the hospital as a 'service' dog to see him. Other than a speech impediment and a broken rib he looks fine. Actually, pretty excited if albeit a little frustrated to experience Muggle treatment."

"You posed as a service dog?" Harry asked, smothering a laugh at the thought of Sirius being petted and fussed over by a bunch of sick kids and adults.

Sirius scowled and grumbled, "Yes, well. It was the only way to get dogs inside since we didn't want to bring wizard trouble to the hospital. And no, I was not harassed by an army of little kids on the way there!"

"You totally were," Harry giggled, laughing as Sirius shuddered and said, "They're hands were so sticky…"

"Anyway, Molly wasn't too thrilled when she heard Arthur's reason for being so upbeat despite possibly never using magic again or walking-,"

"Never using magic again?!" Harry interrupted, "I thought he was fine magic wise!"

"So, did we." Sirius solemnly stated, "But Doctor Jones and Fin Tiro visited him last month for a check up to try a bit of magical therapy. Arthur could hold his wand just fine, but he'd only get halfway through a spell before he stuttered and messed up the spell or he'd say the spell and only get weak results."

A pit formed in Harry's stomach as he vaguely remembered Ness's warning of PSI messing with magic. Was that why Mr. Weasley couldn't cast spells? Would he be stuck as a new kind of squib?

"It isn't that bad though!" Sirius added, "He can still cast it. Doctor Jones merely thinks that the injuries are simply impeding him from a hundred percent casting and that once the physical therapy is done that they should try again."

"So, he isn't a squib?"

"A squib? Why would he become a squib?"

Harry squirmed before slowly admitting that right after they left Mr. Weasley room in St. Mungdos for snacks, they had gotten Lovegood's father to apperate them to Ness's friend's house to ask him to heal Mr. Weasley.

"Which was where you learned that PSI could turn people into squibs." Sirius deadpanned, looking a little ill. "Merlin's beard…I thought those rumors of people losing their magic were just that, rumors."

"Rumors…?" Harry questioned. Lowering his almost empty Butterbeer as Sirius nodded, "Yes, rumors as far back as Grendiwal's war about people losing their magic after certain events or attacks."

"What events?" Harry pressed. He leaned back with a small frown when Sirius shook his head, "Don't forget that we're here to talk about your life as well, Harry."

He had forgotten, taken in by the soothing butterbeer and hearing how everyone's lives were going. Plus, he really didn't want to talk about his problems…Even though after talking to Kale it had felt…Nice.

It was reassuring to learn that the reason why he limited on information was to try and encourage him to relax while at school. Even if he didn't like being left in the dark.

"Well, um…Umbridge came back, right after you told me to try and stay out of trouble." Harry started, "She came with three Ministry appointed teachers and a report that stated that Hagrid, Professor Kale and Professor Trelawney were unfit for teaching and needed to be replaced."

"She came with the big guns then," Sirius hummed, "The news mentioned something about sending teachers handpicked by the school board to oversee Dumbledore and Umbridge. But it was a brief snippet."

Harry murmured, "Probably still trying to cover it up then," before continuing. "The teachers are pretty okay. Well, two of them are, Dumbledore found a replacement for Divination so the third one left. They actually try to teach us stuff while also adhering to the Ministry's rule of 'no defensive magic being taught to the possible rebels' rule."

"Really?"

"Yea, Professor Sliver always has us writing reports on how this spell was made or the defensive uses it could have on certain situations and encourages use to make note of spells to try out next year. I'm not sure how Professor Mackerson is with Astronomy, but Ginny says he's okay."

"How is Ginny?" Sirius asked, moving to refill their mugs as he spoke, "She hasn't said a word to Molly after her, uh, order to stay away from Earthbound

"…Order?"

"Yea, said the boy was bad news and that they should stay away from him. Ginny didn't like that and sent a letter angrily defending him before going radio silent."

"I…I guess that's why Ginny started sitting with us." Harry realized, a small knot forming as he remembered catching glimpses of Ness sitting by himself or chatting with Gryffindors he normally didn't talk to during meals. "I hadn't even noticed since I was…busy. I think she's doing okay though, but I don't really see her unless it's mealtime or time to turn in at night."

Sirius gave a small hum, probably figuring that Ginny was simply ignoring her mother's orders before making a continue gesture.

"It's really surprising how well Professor Mackerson is being received, given how Profes—er, Kale left."

"He's not on the school grounds?" Sirius interrupted, looking surprised as Harry frowned and shook his head no, "He left. Er, left Hogwarts after he was let go. His reason for being let go was because it was plausible that Trelawney was taking advantage of his gift to see into the future and his status as a squib. So, he left to put some distance between him and Trelawney to try and help the investigation along."

"Bloody hell…No wonder Snape wrote us a letter telling us to keep an eye on Kale." Sirius murmured his expression now grim as he took a sip from his butterbeer.

"Keep an eye on…?" Harry questioned, hoping to get something more informative on why Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Snape looked so distressed.

"He didn't explain much, but I'm guessing Dumbledore doesn't want Kale to fall into the wrong hands. He wasn't originally looking for a job, or so I've heard but Dumbledore hired him once he figured out that Trelawney's first few simple predictions had been fed to her by Kale.'

Kale didn't wish to work at Hogwarts? Why? Was it because he was a Squib? Did he face peer pressure against being a wizard or learning about the wizarding world?

His expression must have said his thoughts aloud as Sirius shrugged, "No one knows for sure, but Kale seemed to want to enjoy a simple Muggle life. He merely met Trelawney overseas and the two hit it off, his status as a Squib and a Seer allowing Trelawney to freely write and talk to him."

Harry gave a soft, "Huh…" before resuming his explanation of his school week, "Other than not, nothing much has happened. Although, there was someone spying on Ness and I's…class, with Professor Snape and Kale."

"Someone was spying on you?" Sirius exclaimed, "Surely you've told Dumbledore about this and caught them?!"

Harry shook his head no, feeling a little sick as he realized he never confirmed with Snape if he spoke to Dumbledore about it. He knew the man would but…given all the chaos and sudden return of Umbridge he might have forgotten. "No, I think Snape said he would, but I never checked. I think Ness is trying to use his…friends to try and find the spy but I never thought to ask him how it's going."

"Bloody hell…Trouble just loves to follow you around." Sirius muttered before asking, "How's Ron?"

"…Better." Harry decided after a moment of deliberation, "It seems like Edgecombe is really helping him calm down…I think."

"You're trying to avoid pushing his buttons, aren't you?" Sirius softly questioned.

"…Yea. It's silly since I do want to know how he's taking everything and maybe try and help him. But." He faltered then admitted with a crestfallen expression, "I don't want things to end up like the Tri-Wizard Cup again."

"What happened there?"

His stomach coiled into knots at the mere memory of what had happened, but he managed to press on. "When my name was pulled…Ron thought I had purposely entered the cup. I tried to explain that I didn't and that was someone was trying to set me up, but he didn't believe it, and we got into a fight which ended Ron storming off and not speaking to me." Sirius raised an eyebrow, surprised at how quickly the argument had escalated.

"He didn't speak to me until after the first round ended, when I had to face a dragon. When it became clear that I could have died and that I didn't willingly join." He took a hasty swig of his butterbeer, "Hermione believed me, fully agreed that someone was trying to set me up, but Ron refused to listen to her when she tried to get him to see a bit of reason."

"And you're afraid that if you push it or confront Ron about how much of a dick he's been—" Harry choked on his butterbeer and turned his head away to cough, "You might lose his friendship for good." Sirius finished, ignoring his Godson's choking fit as he sighed, "You didn't have a lot of friends growing up, did you?"

Harry shook his head no, his eyes watering from the soothing butter going down the wrong pipe and burning it. "And Ron was your first friend?"

A nod.

Sirius gave a long sigh, "No wonder you didn't want to push your luck…Harry, sometimes…Sometimes you have to risk a friendship in order to save a friendship. And that means going up to Ron and stating how much of a dick-," another coughing fit from Harry, "—He's been to you and the others at school. It's fine that he's upset and trying to put himself at ease given what's going, but lashing out at you, bystanders and becoming a social pariah isn't good for anyone. Especially not him since all that will do will drive everyone away."

"But he's gotten better since he started dating Edgecombe!" Harry protested, cringing when Sirius countered with, "Better because she truly loves him? Or better because she shares his problem and is encouraging him to do things he normally wouldn't do?"

"I…I'm not sure, I don't ask about Edgecombe much." He admitted, "I was just happy he had something outside of our mess to distract himself with. Although, I AM curious to know what she saw in him, I mean, he let his hatred against Ness get him and Edgecombe kicked out of Madam Puddlefoot's tea shop."

"And you haven't asked him for fear of the bridge burning." Sirius guessed.

"No…Hermione and I also haven't told him about my panic attack either." It felt weird, referring to his mental space out on the walk to Hogsmeade as a 'panic attack' but…he wasn't really an expert on this sort of thing.

"You haven't?"

"No…I remembered T-the graveyard attack and it triggered it." He tightened his grip on his mug, trying to ignore the thunderous booms and crashes suddenly pounding in the back of his head. "B-but since we were supposed to meet Ness that day…We both just silently agreed not to tell Ron about it so he wouldn't go after Ness again. Especially since we were meeting him to be interviewed about what happened that night."

"You've had a really rough year then." Sirius noted, giving a dry chuckle as he added, "And it's barely even over."

Harry managed a soft, "Yea…" before taking a sip from his butterbeer, hoping the serene nectar of butter and beer would sooth the pounding. It barely worked, but it was better than nothing.

"Wh…what should I do? I really…don't want to rock the boat with him, but with the spy and Ness and I being on bad terms…" He cut himself off, unsure of where to go next as Sirius stood up and sat beside him.

Carefully wrapped an arm around him and pulling him close, "Well, first. You should probably make up with Ness, tell him you're going to back off from learning the Ministry's secrets—which you are—and give him some space. Maybe try to talk to him when it's about the spy since it's both of your problems."

Harry gave a reluctant nod, hating how his stomach jumped to the moon and back as Sirius continued, "Then, you tell Ron about your panic attack. As much as you can without triggering it, once that's out of the way you tell him why you and Hermione kept it a secret from him and bring up his unhealthy anger from before, and how you felt about confronting him earlier."

"…What if he stops being my friend?" Harry whispered, feeling sick.

"Then, he wasn't a good friend in the first place." Sirius bluntly answered, "Friends have messy fights every blue moon. Fights that need both parties to admit that they screwed up even if they didn't want to or confronting that friend with their unhealthy behavior. Do you remember how your father and I found out about Lupin's furry secret?"

"Yea…you were all curious about why he vanished every full moon…So you followed him, got proof and confronted him about it. Then you helped ease the pain by becoming an animagus."

"That's right, we did that since we were worried about our friend. And even though we really would have died, it didn't matter. Lupin was our best friend we weren't going to let him suffer in silence before and after we knew what was going on." Sirius stated, "Why do you think Hermione's always being the nagging voice against you and Ron's ideas?"

"…Because she cares, and she…she sees the bigger picture that can get us in loads of trouble sometimes. Even if it means going behind our backs to try and get us to see it too or being extra annoying about it." Harry answered.

"That's right. Actually, you may want to tell her about telling Ron, so you have someone else to prove your point."

"You…you don't think he'd listen?"

"Harry, no one likes being told that they've been a jerk. Or that they're wrong. It's a bitter pill to swallow and sometimes, it helps if you have someone else who knows what's going on to mediate both sides." Sirius explained, "It's human nature."

Harry nodded, still feeling a little sick but also at ease as Sirius tightened his grip. Feeling a bit more comfortable with being touchy feelly the longer they spoke. "Now, er, a lighter topic but um." Harry glanced at Sirius who was suddenly nervous but obviously excited.

"Sirius…?"

"Laws or not, if you want. You can move into Grimmauld place once the school year is over."

What?

"What?" Harry asked, suddenly feeling as if he was on air as Sirius nodded, a nervous grin forming as he hastily added. "I-if you want of course! As your Godfather, James and Lily gave me possible guardianship and since everything's calming down you could um—well, if you ever wanted to leave the Dursleys—Bloody hell!"

Harry practically strangled the air out of Sirius from his spontaneous hug/tackle, his head spinning from the idea of leaving the Dursleys, never having to deal with Aunt Marge again, being locked up over the summer—attempting to experience summer activities and meet up with friends!

"Yes!" he almost screamed, quickly flushing with embarrassment as the overjoy dulled a bit to allow him to see Sirius's surprised look and Crookshanks puffed up tail. He quickly let go and scooted back, clearing his throat and trying to repeat himself in a much more civil manner. "I mean. Yes, I would like that—no, I would love that. I would love to move into Grimmaud place."

Sirius blinked, an array of positive emotions flickering through his eyes before he broke into a broad grin, "G-great! That's wonderful!" he seemed like he wanted to say more but was struggling to return the formality…and probably not give Harry a heart stopping hug of his own.

Looks like they were both terrible when it came to touchy feelly talks since after a moment of half sentences of positives and plans Sirius jumped back to talking about the rumors of wizards losing magic and why he should be focusing on being a kid.

It was 2 in the morning when Harry got back, but he didn't care. His heart singing, "I'm leaving the Durselys, I'm living with Sirius!" and an infectious smile on his face as he slipped into bed.

Of course, fate seemed to hate his happiness since an annoyed hiss of, "Hey! Watch it!" sent him almost flying out of bed in a panic as he sat up with a hex at the ready only to see Nagini lying on his pillow.

A horrible black tattoo of the earth seemingly eating a wailing Deatheater mark on her side as she lazily flicked her tongue at him.

"Nessss wantsss to sssspeak to you later today."


2 out of 12!

Harry: Oh wow! That talk wasn't so bad and I actually feel validated and comforted for once! Something I almost never get in cannon!

Nagini: Yea, might want to savior that feeling.

But, seriously. I never realized just HOW bad Harry had it in Book five until I started reading other fanfics that pointed out how Harry was being kept away from EVERYTHING that he was SUPPOSED to be involved in until the very end of the book. I knew about the dangerous possibility of Harry suffering from survivor's guilt and maybe gaining a few more issues after Mr. Weasley's attack and then Sirius's murder (HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE DIED WHY DA FUDGE DID YOU KILL HIM J.K ROWLING?!) but geez, it's a miracle that ANY of Harry's friends still listen to adults after this mess.

Also, how'd I do with Sirius's advice? I'm not very good at verbally confronting people or problems head on that have a 100% of a negative outcome or arugment- and Ron's situation is sort of delicate since Harry probably didn't have friends before Hogwarts- who am I kidding he totally didn't have any friends thanks to Dudley- and it isn't to hard to see Harry just, dealing with it like he did in cannon despite the extra gasoline I tossed onto the simmering fire known as Ron.

Also-also, I totally forgot that I implied that Crookshanks stayed with Harry and Sirius until I was editing this chapter, hence why Crookshanks is just, appearing and disappearing as Sirius and Harry chat. ^-^;