Just after Harry went to bed that evening, Sirius crept back into his room to perform a Noise Enhancing charm on the parameters, adjusting it so that he would be the only one to hear anything if his godson woke up from a nightmare. He recalled that there were protective charms that one could use. Most witches or wizards who grew up with at least one magical parent could tell stories of how said parent would know if the underage wizard was in any physical danger, or even experiencing a mild illness. Sirius had learnt that many muggles used an alarm system to keep out burglars, and thought that the wizarding protection was similar, except far superior. It was very, very difficult to tamper with a protective charm.

As Sirius prepared for bed, he thought that he should finally ask Harry about what had transpired in the Occlumency lessons. When Snape had arrived at his family home to give his godson the news, Sirius' had known that it would be hard for Harry, because Snape would be the one teaching. Still, he had never heard of the term before, and asked Remus to procure any reading materials he could find about the subject, with the understanding that he would reimburse him for the expense (and probably more than the cost, with the paltry excuse that he didn't have exact change). Remus had returned a few days later with a couple of rather slim volumes, and only one of them devoted entirely to the art. It had been written over a hundred years ago. Sirius had been an excellent student, but even he grew rather bleary eyed as he tried to decipher the text.

The other volumes gave a better description of what it was, but in a textbook sort of way, without trying to teach the subject. The older book certainly gave more thorough instructions with regards to practicing Occlumency, even if the writer used ten words when one or two would have sufficed.

Given that the art of Occlumency was to shield one's mind from attack, Sirius learned after spending several hours studying the older volume, it was necessary to have a shield up in one's mind as a barrier. This didn't necessary mean the Shield Charm, which Sirius knew that Harry was able to perform easily, but a place someone could retreat to when their mind was under attack. After discussing it with Remus, after lending him the book for a few days, his friend commented that it was not unlike how many muggles who suffered trauma were able to cope.

"Then, it's a type of hiding within your mind?" Sirius had asked, placing the book aside for the fifteenth time that day as they tried to decipher it.

"Coping, not hiding," Remus had corrected, gently. "What this wizard, Darsare, states is that it's both defensive and offensive."

"But there's no magic being used," Sirius had protested.

"No direct magic, you mean." Remus had smiled.

Sirius had promptly thrown the book at him.

He had expected Snape to use this method when teaching Harry. Rather similar to when he'd learned the Patronus Charm, really. Focus on a memory or scene in order to drive out the intruder. Force this image on them instead of whatever memories they were trying to access.

Harry hadn't contacted him after the Christmas holidays to tell Sirius about how the extra lessons were going, and Sirius had been concerned (and a little hurt), but he reasoned that with being in the final months of OWL preparation, he hardly had any time.

Then, the sudden appearance in Umbridge's fireplace, relaying his viewing of Snape's memory after their DADA exam, and it struck Sirius that if Snape was hiding memories from his godson, he must be afraid of Harry being able to access his mind.

Which meant that his approach to learning Occlumency was not the one that the wizard Homeos Darsare had advocated.

Sirius did not want to believe what his intuition told him was Snape's method of teaching. Even for Snape, that would be extreme.

And yet...

A part of Sirius told himself that this was a moot point. Harry would not be studying Occlumency in the future. Dumbledore had deemed it unnecessary, based on Harry's power to love. He'd been there, in the office of the headmaster with Harry, hearing Dumbledore say it.

On the other hand, if Harry had been attacked in his mind by Snape, before he could establish the appropriate defenses, which, according to the book, took as few as ten months and as long as that many years...

One step at a time. Sirius knew that he should find out what had transpired in the lessons before jumping to the worst possible conclusion. He also realized that he should not push Harry to talk if he didn't want to. He would broach the topic, but if Harry pushed back, or worse, only answered because he felt some sort of obligation to do so, Sirius would reassure him and change the topic.

It took Sirius over an hour to fall asleep, during which he heard Harry's breathing slow until it reached a sound sleep. He smiled, relieved that his charm was working so far.

There were no nightmares that night for either of them. After Sirius had escaped from Azkaban, he had slept as Padfoot as much to hide from the nightmares as for safety purposes. He knew that if a wizard found and recognized his sleeping body, or even a muggle, he would be dead or kissed by a Dementor within hours. After returning to his childhood home, he forced himself to break the habit.

Sirius had been glad that he knew how to utilize the Silencing Charm on his room.

Even now, he still awoke from them, but always (or nearly always) managed not to scream out.

Granted, having seen Harry and his friends fight Death Eaters, he was experiencing a type of nightmare very similar to Harry's.

Sirius woke up around 9 the next morning, and was still in his wizarding sleeping robes-he could never get used to muggle pajamas-when Harry's tentative knock on the door came.

"Just a minute!" he called, grabbing a dressing gown.

Opening the door, he saw a fully dressed Harry, wearing one of the new shirts and jeans he'd purchased a couple of days earlier.

Sirius smiled, appreciating the difference. Harry's old muggle clothes had been even worse than he'd expected, not that Harry had ever complained about wearing hand me downs.

"Er, hi," Harry greeted, a little sheepishly. Probably noticing Sirius was still not dressed for the day.

Sirius gave Harry's hair a tousle, then aimed his wand at himself. The sleepwear immediately became a pair of muggle jeans and a loose t-shirt.

"That's incredible!" Harry gaped at Sirius, who laughed and beckoned him to come in.

"I still have to brush my teeth," Sirius warned, giving Harry a quick hug, keeping his face away from the boy's. "Give me a couple of minutes? It's for your safety, you know."

Harry snickered, earning him another hair tousle, and nodded.

"I can wait here," he offered.

Sirius, smiling, nodded towards a soft chair in the corner. He pointed his wand to the bed, and it immediately made itself. Then, leaving the wand on the dresser, he went to the bathroom in the hallway. As he didn't have to wait for anyone, he was back in a few minutes.

"Do wizards usually brush their teeth? The ones from wizarding families?" Harry asked.

"Sure, but we use our own type of toothpaste and the like. You know those tooth flossing mints from Honeydukes?" Sirius questioned. At Harry's nod, he continued, "We have toothpaste and toothbrushes that pretty much do the same. We also never need dentists, because if your tooth hurts, you, or preferably a Healer, can perform an extraction charm and a regrowing charm. Got to be skilled at that...we learned it in our seventh year, but it can go wrong. Remus tried it, once, and looked like a woodchuck until Madam Pomfrey fixed him up."

"Hermione got her teeth shrunk in our fourth year after Crabbe or Goyle hexed them," Harry remembered.

"I remember thinking that her smile looked different last summer," Sirius chuckled. "Smart one, that Hermione."

"We didn't notice for a couple of weeks," Harry admitted, rather sheepishly.

"That's because you were used to how she used to look," Sirius explained, kindly. Glancing at the door, he added, "Ready to face your relatives in exchange for breakfast?"

"Sure," Harry agreed.

Sirius noticed that the meals served by Petunia were not as meager as they could have been. Whether this was because he was with Harry or they had finally ended Dudley's diet (he was all muscle now), he didn't care to find out. Besides, since he could take Harry out to eat, he would make sure that his godson was getting good meals-as far as taste as well as nutritious.

Harry had been small for his age when they first met, but had more or less caught up, or so Sirius suspected. He was shorter than his godfather, but James had also been a couple of inches shorter than Sirius before he finally caught up.

Sirius placed an arm around Harry's shoulder, causing him to smile at him, and they walked several paces like that. It was necessary to stop before embarking downstairs, unfortunately.

The three Dursleys looked at Sirius and Harry like they were flies they couldn't manage to swat, although Dudley's look lacked the malice of his parents.

"Good of you to show up before it's all gone," Petunia snapped, placing two pieces of toast on two separate plates.

Vernon grumbled something about homeless people who lacked ambition, but stopped at Sirius' steely glare-and his hand on Harry's shoulder.

They sat down and ate in silence. Harry made no complaints about this bare bones breakfast, but Sirius recalled that he had eaten just toast as his morning meal on several occasions, so he didn't complain.

Still, he thought that Lily's sister could have at least offered jam or butter.

Less than five minutes later, they finished eating, although the Dursleys were still seated at the table. Vernon had gone back to his coffee, and Dudley was eating bacon and eggs while watching some muggle program on the TV. Petunia made a show of taking and washing Sirius and Harry's plates, looking affronted for some reason or another.

What he would have given to hex them...

"What would you like to do today?" Sirius asked, once they had left the room.

"Could we play a game of wizard chess?" he asked, after a moment of consideration.

"Of course!" Sirius grinned with enthusiasm. "I'll grab my set."

Harry was still learning the finer techniques of the game, as Sirius knew from playing over the previous Christmas and summer holidays. He was a good enough player for having been at it since he was eleven, and when he played with Ron, he nearly always lost. Still, Ron was even better than Sirius was, and could certainly trounce Remus. Which, come to think of it, he had on at least two occasions.

No, Harry certainly wasn't bad, he just wasn't quite at the level of his best friend and godfather. Not that he ever seemed to mind losing a game much. Harry was competitive at Quidditch, and could probably have given James a run for his money, but he was certainly a good sport.

They set up the board and pieces in Harry's room in relative quiet, a companionable sort.

"There was a giant chess board in my first year, when we tried to stop Snape from getting at the stone," Harry said, suddenly.

Sirius froze, dropping his knight.

"Snape went after the stone?" he asked.

But Harry shook his head. "It was Quirrel the whole time."

Sirius chuckled. "After this game, pup, I want to know the whole story."

Harry smiled. "All right."

They might have been able to talk had it been a regular game of Chess, but the enchanted wizarding players kept Harry and Sirius busy with advice. The advice, Harry had learned as early as his first year, was helpful only insofar as trying to preserve the life of each player. His pawns were particularly vocal.

The same went with Sirius' players, although they seemed somewhat resigned to the fact that he would rarely take their advice. Occasionally, Sirius would swear or growl, "Quiet, you!" with his wand pointed at the offending player.

Harry, who wasn't nearly as bold, tried to take the conflicting advice when he thought it wise, but mostly attempted to ignore the shouts from his vocal pieces.

"They sure can be a headache, eh?" Sirius grumbled, rather cheerfully, as he ordered a knight to capture one of Harry's pawns.

Harry laughed. "It's more fun than regular Chess."

Not that he had played that game, having had no one to play with before going to Hogwarts, but he knew what it was.

"Not for us!" grumbled one of Harry's bishops.

Harry ignored him, except for ordering the piece to capture Sirius' remaining knight, who promptly captured it with his queen.

The game continued in a friendly competitive manner (except for the pieces in question), ending when Sirius checkmated Harry after capturing his queen. As the only remaining pieces in play were one of Harry's pawns and his king, against Sirius' king and queen, it was one of Harry's better games, and Sirius acknowledged this.

"Nice job, there, Harry," he said, scanning the board. "You put up a good fight."

"Thanks, Sirius," he answered, clearly happy at this praise. "Maybe, we could play a game every day or so?"

"Of course!" Sirius agreed, grinning broadly. "By the end of the holidays, you could give Ron a run for his money."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "I doubt that-he's really good."

Sirius put an arm on his shoulder. "Perhaps, by the end of your next summer holidays, then," he offered, and Harry looked pleased.

"I'm glad I only have to return here once more," Harry confided, speaking rather softly, as though afraid that the Dursleys would hear.

"I hate that you had to spend any time at all with these people," Sirius sighed. "Blood wards or not, I can't believe that Dumbledore honestly believed it was worth it. Likely as not, he thought that they would care for you, being your family." He barked out a laugh. "As though that determines anything."

Harry nodded, then began to gather up his chess pieces, who had returned to their pre-game state, and were entirely silent. Sirius followed Harry's lead with his own.

A few minutes passed without either saying anything. Sirius wasn't entirely sure if the silence was companionable or awkward. Having always been a vocal person, as had been James, talking had been an essential part of their friendship. Remus had been, and remained to this day, more quiet by nature, and Sirius had always believed that their friend's silence during their school days had first been one of fear of his condition being discovered as well as enjoying their company without feeling the need to add anything to their discussion. James, after all, had been the one to suggest creating the two-way mirror in their third year, as their detentions were nearly always separate, and a fairly regular occurrence. He hoped that Harry would be more willing to use the mirror, now that he knew it wasn't a risky form of communication.

"Last year, when Snape was teaching me Occlumency, I saw a lot of stuff I had forgotten before I went to Hogwarts," Harry confided. "Memories from primary school, and stuff like that."

Sirius sighed. "By what you told me, he believed that the best way to teach Occlumency is what muggles would call a 'baptism by fire', pup."

"Er-what?" Harry asked.

Sirius patted the space on the bed next to him, and Harry immediately sat there, turning his head to face Sirius.

"After Snape came to my house on your last day of Christmas holidays to inform you of this news, I asked Remus to locate some reading materials on the subject," Sirius began. "Most of what he was able to locate was a brief description of the art, among others related to Defense Against the Dark Arts. There was one volume, which was downright painful to read because it was so old, that explained the process to becoming proficient at it. The author spoke more about methods to clear one's mind, which would naturally prepare you for an attack. He specified, on numerous occasions," Sirius added, with emphasis, "that no attack by the teacher should be attempted until after the student had been practicing for at a minimum of two months. He recommended waiting until at least six."

Harry's face darkened as what his godfather told him registered.

"It wasn't like that at all in Snape's class. He attacked my mind right away, and just kept telling me to resist him. He wouldn't say how, even," Harry added, darkly. "He told me to empty my mind before bed each night, without saying how, and...well, mostly, I forgot," he admitted.

Sirius wrapped both arms around Harry. "That must have been hell for you, kiddo."

"I hated him seeing all that stuff that Dudley and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon did. Especially Dudley and his gang," Harry admitted. "I'd forgotten most of it."

Sirius wondered if Harry had suppressed it. He was no student of muggle psychology, but he wasn't as quick to dismiss some of the methods as other wizards. Particularly because even if Healers might know something about trauma and treatment methods, most witches and wizards didn't. Sirius had spoken to a Healer twice after being officially cleared, and he'd found it helpful, but he'd only done this because he'd needed a full checkup after spending twelve years in Azkaban and another two on the run. He hadn't exactly been in prime physical condition.

"That was bloody rotten of him," Sirius stated. "I've no doubt that, with that kind of teaching, it would be nearly impossible to learn anything. Really," he mused, "it's as much 'teaching' as throwing a child into a deep body of water would be 'teaching' them to swim."

"I could have worked harder at trying to clear my mind. I was just so convinced that the visions were real, and that everyone was trying to keep me in the dark," Harry admitted. "Everyone except you, I mean."

Sirius hugged Harry more tightly. "Dumbledore, and the others, treated you more like a house elf than a person. Keeping certain dark information from you might have been understandable when you first entered Hogwarts, Harry, but you saw Voldemort rise to power. Of all people, you need and deserve to know everything that's going on, because it directly affects you."

"Especially now, what with me being the Chosen One," Harry sighed. "I guess I always knew it would come down to that, though."

"If Dumbledore hasn't learned from his mistakes this past year, he's gone totally bonkers," Sirius reassured Harry. "Not that it excuses him, but he promised to tell you everything from now on."

Harry nodded. "I hope he does."

"I'll make his life hell if he doesn't," Sirius promised, and Harry gave him a smile.

"Thanks, Sirius. I'm really glad that you're on my side. You--you always stood up for me, to know the truth about things," he told him. "It means a lot."

Sirius tucked a stray hair out of Harry's face. "I know how it feels, pup. To be treated like a means to an end, or an inconvenience. And I still blame myself for your parents' death. They were robbed when Voldemort killed him, but so were you, and much more. If I hadn't convinced them to switch to that rat..."

"It's not your fault, not really," Harry protested. "The way I see it, the only two people who were really responsible for my mum and dad's death were Wormtail and Voldemort. I know that you would have died to keep them safe."

"Thanks, Harry."

Sirius hugged him even more tightly, and they stayed like that for several minutes.

Harry ended the hug, but remained close to Sirius, watching him with a smile.

"Harry? D'you mind if I ask you something?" he asked, tentatively.

"All right."

"How did you come across the memory in the pensieve?" Sirius asked.

Harry looked puzzled. "Snape removed some memories from his head after I arrived for his Occlumency lessons. He'd put them back after he was finished. Except when they found Montague, and I thought it might have something to do with the Department of Mysteries."

So, the git had protected himself in case Harry had managed to see into his mind.

"I don't suppose he offered you the same option?" Sirius asked, gently.

Harry shook his head.

"Cowardly git," Sirius growled. In a softer voice, he added, "If Dumbledore makes you take lessons from him again..."

"I'll refuse. I'd rather do detention with Snape every week than let him attack my mind!" Harry practically growled.

Sirius snorted. "You should be excused from all future detentions based on what he put you through."

"Yeah," Harry agreed.

"If you like," Sirius offered, "I can help you with clearing your mind. In case Snape or Voldemort, who's only slightly worse, tries getting into your head again."

Harry looked concerned. "How would that work, exactly?"

"I wouldn't attack your mind or anything like that," Sirius promised. "Just walk you through the process of clearing your mind, which would likely be most effective before you go to bed, so you would better be able to fight against an attack."

Harry considered. "You won't use magic?"

"Well, I might use a tickling charm...just kidding!" he added, quickly. "No, no magic."

With a bit of a smirk, Harry gave his godfather his consent. "Yeah, all right. We can give it a try."