Hey Everyone! I am back!

I don't have much to say for this chapter just that I hope you all like it.

November 7th, 1982

Outside Number 4 Privet Drive

8:50 pm

It was dark as Sirius, Remus, Minerva, and Amelia stood outside Number 4 Privet Drive. It was precisely as Minerva remembered; each lawn was like the other, trimmed to perfection, not a blade out of place. Each car parked in the same place in the driveway. Behind each curtain, they could see the glow of the living rooms and the shadows as people moved around preparing for bed.

"It's smaller than I expected," Sirius stated, taking in Number 4. "But that does not matter; he will not be staying here any longer."

"I just remember how terrible they were when I watched them that day," Minerva commented as they walked up to the house.

"Let's get this over with. I want my son." Sirius walked forward and knocked on the door.

They waited for a few moments before Sirius knocked again louder with a bit more force, and finally, they heard noises come from behind the door, and it opened a peak, and Minerva was surprised to see the not so round face of Vernon Dursley looking at them.

"Do you know what time it is," Vernon hissed at them? "Where do you get off banging on doors so close to bedtime."

Amelia stepped forward. "Sir, I am Amelia Bones of the DMLE; I am here to place Harry Potter in the custody of his rightful guardian, his Godfather Sirius Black."

A brief look of confusion crossed Vernon's face, "You are mistaken. My wife and I have custody of the boy."

"Not Legally, you don't," Amelia replied.

"Vernon, who is at the door? Tell them to keep their voices down I just got Dudley to sleep; I will not have them waking him up." Petunia's voice carried down the stairs as she joined them. Her eyes widened at seeing who was there. "Why are you here!" she hissed, pointing at Sirius.

"Hello to you too, Petunia." Sirius sneered. "I've come for Harry."

"Well, too bad." Petunia grabbed for the door handle and made to slam it, but Sirius stopped her.

"Now, now, that's no way to treat a guest." Sirius snapped and pushed his way inside, and the others followed. "Just give us Harry, and you will never see us again."

Vernon moved in front of his wife, and Petunia hugged her housecoat tighter around her. "You must think I'm stupid to hand him over to you lot. I know I'm just a muggle to you all, but I refuse to allow Harry to become some martyr for your cause like Lily."

Sirius blinked; he was not expecting that. "Excuse me, what did you say?"

"You heard me." Petunia snapped, careful to keep her voice down. "I will not allow Harry to be carted off into your world like Lily and die for you all. I understand that I acted poorly in the last years of my sister's life," she paused as she gathered the rest of her words. "I will not lie to you and say when I woke up on November 1st and saw him on our front porch clutching that letter, that I was not filled with anger, but then he opened his eyes." She broke off in a sob.

"He has Lily's eyes," Remus murmured.

"He does." Petunia nodded at him. "He looked up at me, and all I could see was her, and I could see this for what it was, a second chance to be better to him than I was to her. I read the vague letter Dumbledore left with his twisted words, but the moment Harry looked at me, I vowed to protect him. I won't allow you to take him."

"Legally, you have no choice," Amelia said as gently as she could.

"He's, my nephew!" Petunia nearly screamed. "I'm the only person left in the world to whom he is related by blood, and yes, I understand how you all view me as Lily's older jealous sister, but there is a lot you do not know or understand. Lily and I reconciled somewhat during her time in hiding. She wrote to me; I could never return her letters, but she wrote to me once a month that last year. She wrote often enough for me to realize my hatred for her was just jealousy I never dealt with. She told me everything that was going on, well, as much as she could. Lily also told me that she had not told anyone that she was writing to me. She wanted to keep me away from the world and safe. She knew that there was a chance that she was going to die, and she didn't want to without mending fences, at least on her end. There was never a return address for me to write to her, she probably thought I would not want to. My only hope was that your war would end, and I could tell her she never needed to be forgiven that it was my petty issues caused our rift. Then I woke up that morning and saw Harry on the steps. I have loved him just the way I have loved my son." She reached for Vernon's hand, and he held it and squeezed it. "We have become a real family, better than I ever thought possible. I will not have you separating us; I'm going to ensure that Dudley and Harry have the relationship Lily and I should have had before I let petty feelings of insecurity get in the way."

Sirius, Remus, Minerva, and Amelia paused as they let her words sink in.

"Ok, I'm just going to say what we are all thinking. Bloody hell, I was not expecting this." Sirius was the first to gather himself. "I was expecting you to throw him at us. I see now we started this on the wrong foot. How about we sit down and talk this through."

Petunia shook her head. "There is nothing to talk over, he's ours."

"Petunia," Remus stepped forward. "I apologize for how we have acted. As Sirius stated, we expected a vastly different welcome, but we do have much to discuss. May we sit?" Remus motioned to the living room.

"Petunia." Vernon looked to his wife. "Let's at least hear them out."

Petunia took a breath and nodded, and Vernon lead them into the living room. Petunia and Vernon took a seat on the smaller couch as Sirius, Remus, Minerva, and Amelia took the open seats.

"Now," Sirius started. "I would like to apologize for our actions formally. We were expecting a vastly different welcome when we arrived. We incorrectly assumed you and Lily were not on one accord. I, for one, should understand the sting of being incorrectly judged." He paused. "If we knew earlier what we know now, our entire approach would have been different. I must say that we are running against the clock, and once the cat is out of the bag, as they say, certain parties will play their hand, and we are now under the belief that not all parties have Harry's best interest at heart."

"You mean Dumbledore?" Petunia asked surprising the room.

"What gives you that idea?" Amelia asked, sharing a look with the others.

Petunia took a breath and grabbed her husband's hand. He gave her hand a comforting squeeze, "When he left Harry on our doorstep, all that was left with him was that letter I mentioned. When we found him the next morning-"

"The next morning?" Sirius interrupted before turning to Minerva, "you left him out on a doorstep at night, all night in October?" his voice rising an octave with each word.

Minerva closed her eyes and bowed her head. "There's no talking to Albus, you know how he is, but once we left, I immediately came back, and I stayed with him all night and kept him warm until I heard the Dursleys get up in the morning. At the time, I thought I was doing the right thing; I understand now that I was incorrect."

"Well," petunia continued. "The letter was full of pleasantries and backhanded information, but I've always prided myself at being able to read between the lines. The letter informed me of my sister's passing along with her husband. That Harry was an orphan, my sister died to protect him, and now he needed my protection. That it was my duty as his Family to raise him and not let past resentments cloud my judgment. That Harry was now the Boy-who-lived, a celebrity in your world. He also alluded to the fact that we may be in danger by keeping him, but we could not move as blood wards were placed around the property to protect Harry, and Harry must always call this place home, for the Greater Good."

"That man is full of twisted words and meanings," Sirius spit out. "He worded it so you would subconsciously start to resent Harry. He made it seem like Harry was the reason your sister is dead. Not to mention the protection granted was for only Harry and not your Family, but while taking in Harry, your Family was now a target, and now you can never move if you wanted to because of Harry. Does that sum it up?"

Petunia nodded. "It does, Vernon and I were quite angry reading the letter, and it did take us a bit to calm down. The way he painted it, he was knowingly putting a target on our back and only caring enough to protect Harry. Since we were unable to move; Vernon's had to turn down a promotion in France," she grasped Vernon's hand. "We also wanted more children, but now we wouldn't dare. There is no room to grow in this house, and we could never knowingly bring another child into the world with this potential danger..." She trailed off and allowed the occupants in the room to come to their conclusions, but it was clear, Dumbledore set up Harry to be resented by his Aunt and Uncle, for what reason they could not utterly understand.

Sirius was the first to speak. "Petunia, I feel that I must apologize that you have been placed, no" he shook his head. "That you have been manipulated into this position, but I promise you, I have no plans to set Harry up to be a martyr. I want to give him the life James and Lily fought and died for, but as I said we are running against a clock. Tomorrow our world will know that I am innocent and that I have custody of Harry. Once that is revealed, I have no doubt Albus will come here with some story that Harry is not safe, and you all must uproot your Family to accommodate Harry. That is why we have come tonight."

"Dumbledore's meddling aside, Harry's as good as my son." Petunia whispered, tears freely running down her face. "How can you ask me to give him up?"

Sirius exhaled; he was not prepared to rip a family apart to make his whole, but he knew he could not leave without Harry. "Legally, Petunia," Sirius paused to choose his words carefully. "James and Lily left Harry in my care, and I will honor their wish, but knowing what I do now, I have no plans to exclude you from Harry's life."

"Meaning?" Vernon asked, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"I understand the importance of Family, in our world, Family is everything, so I Lord Sirius Black Head of the Noble House of Black swear on my magic that Harry will always be a part of your lives. I will not raise him to be a martyr for the Wizarding World. I will raise him to be the man James and Lily planned to. I will not raise him to be a pawn in Dumbledore's plan. I will do everything in my power to ensure Harry does not have to fight like we did, that he has a happy childhood filled with his family." A light glow covered Sirius as he finished this statement.

"What does that mean?" Vernon asked as he held his sobbing wife.

"It means he will take care of Harry," Petunia sniffed, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, at that Remus conjured a handkerchief and handed it to her. "If he doesn't, he will lose his magic."

Vernon nodded, understanding the gravity of Sirius's oath.

"Vernon, I can't get him." Petunia sniffed. "Can you?"

"Of course, dear." Vernon cleared his throat and stood up, and wiped a stray tear from his eye.

The room was silent, and all that could be heard were Vernon's footsteps as he moved up the stairs.

"Once everything is all settled, I would like to extend a playdate between the boys?" Sirius offered.

"I would like that," Petunia sniffed, and a few moments later, Vernon came back into the room with a sleeping toddler in his arms wrapped in a blanket.

The occupants in the room stood, and Sirius rushed over, "May I?" he asked, and Vernon placed Harry into Sirius's waiting arms.

Harry stirred slightly but only rubbed his nose and relaxed in Sirius's arms. Sirius felt a rush of emotions flood his system; his cub was back in his arms. "Thank you." His voice was thick as he tried to control himself.

"He's gotten so big." Minerva cooed, coming over to them.

Petunia walked over, "He's such a good baby and can sleep through a Dudley tantrum." She sniffed and walked back into her husband's arms.

"Yea, he was always a heavy sleeper," Remus commented as he stood on Sirius other side running his hand over Harry's tuff of hair, pushing it back so he could see more of his face. "What is this?" he asked, seeing the lightening -shaped scar.

"A remnant of his face-off with Old Voldy," Sirius commented, looking a bit confused as it still looked a bit fresh. "It should have healed over by now." He looked up at Petunia and Vernon, "Why hasn't it healed?"

"We've taken him to doctors, even wrote to Dumbledore about it, he never responded. It's healing, but slowly, we figured it was normal in the magical world." Vernon explained.

Amelia shook her head. "It's not. Did Dumbledore respond?"

Petunia shook her head. "Never, he's never responded to a single letter we sent."

Sirius hugged Harry closer to his chest. "He just abandoned him. He just left him here, in the middle of the night, thinking you still hated your sister. Not checking in on him, not responding to any letters. What is his plan."

"Once all of our ducks are in a row, he will be held accountable for these actions." Amelia laid a hand on his shoulder. "I am building a file of his negligence. We will get him but remember we need to be smart about this. No rash actions."

Sirius blew out a breath he did not realize he was holding and turned back to Petunia and Vernon. "I," he paused, "We are eternally grateful that you cared for him as your own; your family will always have a place in our home; you can consider yourself and your family under the protection of the Black Family."

"Thank you." Petunia sobbed.

"No," Remus smiled. "Thank you."

There you have it, and they have Harry! I know Petunia and Vernon were not what people expected; initially, I did plan for them to be crappy, but after I lost my father, my idea for them changed. I wanted Harry to be loved.

Let me know what you guys think!

Cheers,

Andrea Rose