This author note might get annoying if you read multiple of my fics because I'm going to copy/paste it over all updates for maybe the rest of the month.

I really have been neglecting some of my fanfics for about a year and some even two years. I've decided to try to update as many as I can (or as many as I know people want to see). I'm going to be scheduling fic updates but based on the number of hits on the latest chapter (there is a way to see on fanfiction net a huge discrepancy between unique IP visitors and hits and I will make sure that no one is just continually clicking refresh on fics). Right now I am updating fics that have 75+ hits on the latest chapter. That is 40 fanfics at this present time. Once I finish the updates of all of those (hopefully before the end of the month) I will update my stat list (an Excel document) and start again. Hopefully this will explain my updates until the end of the year (although there may be a handful I write just for fun). Thank you for checking out my work. I appreciate every well-intentioned reader. Love the reviews but I still appreciate every well-intentioned reader. Thank you.

Chapter Ten – No Secrets Between Friends

10.1

Sirius wasn't allowed to use magic, he knew that much at least, but what happened at the zoo creeped him out. He looked at Harry who was asleep with the new plush elephant under his arm and shivered. He loved that little boy regardless of this gift but it scared him, terrified him, and of course he couldn't ask James about it. Lily, if it had been Lily he would have known about it. Lily came from a Muggle family and she wouldn't know anything about Parseltongue or being a Parselmouth. If she had been one of them she would have told them without realizing the background of the skill.

After that, they would have convinced her not to tell anyone and explained to her what it meant but she would have no way of knowing the conditions in which a Parselmouth typically grew up. However, James, James had belonged to an old wizarding family where there were some people who had strayed from the true path. His family was a lot worse and he had often admired James's family but there was the off-chance a secret like this existed.

As much as Sirius felt as if he and Jamese were brothers, there was still the chance that James had this gift but had never shared it with anyone. He might have exhibited it at a young age. He might have learned that he wouldn't be as readily accepted if people knew about it and he might not have trusted him that fully. If James had told him about that skill though, he would have told James that it was pretty rare and pretty cool and that maybe they could use it to pull pranks or sneak off places.

He would have accepted James just as he accepted Harry now .

He knew that there was no chance of contacting Dumbledore without magic. He knew that although Arthur Weasley did have a Muggle telephone that he was playing around with, they weren't that close, they weren't close enough to know about Harry's hidden 'talent' and they only had brief encounters with James and Lily.

The only person he could attempt to get in contact with, it was a very long shot that he could even contact him. Sirius turned to look at the calendar. Even with a week and a half away from the next full moon, there was a chance that he had left early for something or he was trying to run away to his safe location. Still, he was the only person who he could contact about this.

Walking over to the phone, he picked it up and put in the numbers for the Muggle phone he had convinced Remus to purchase. He waited as it rang and then heard his surviving friend to pick up.

"Sirius?" Remus asked.

"You knew it was me, huh?" Sirius said with relief that they had actually made a connection.

"You're the only one who contacts me by Muggle means," Remus replied and Sirius nodded hoping that this conversation wasn't secretly being listened to. "Is something wrong? Do you need -"

"Help?" Sirius asked, "Yes. Yes I need some help."

"Would you like me to come over? I have to finish some paperwork but I should be able to pop over in the next half hour or so. Would that be okay?" he asked and Sirius let out an exhale showing his relief.

"Yes," he replied.

Remus smiled softly, "Okay. I'll do that then. Anything I can help you with before I arrive."

"I got engaged but everything else can wait," Sirius told him and Remus smiled. He was beyond happy for his friend. Sirius had seemed to suffer ever since James's and Lily's deaths but he was finally making the most of Muggle-living and finding someone new to spend his time with.

"congratulations," Remus replied, "I'll see you soon."

"Yeah," Sirius said with another relieved sigh. "Thank you. I'll see you soon."

10.2

Sirius sat outside the small house as he waited for Remus. He had put in a swing that could fit two people in the front garden after Elizabeth had said that she liked them. Fortunately both Elizabeth and Harry were sound asleep but Sirius felt his breath racing before he saw Remus apparate in the garden before him.

"I took a chance in doing that, thought that Harry would be asleep by now," the werewolf said as he turned to look at his friend. He frowned as he studied him. "You sounded off on the phone and now that I see you, you really don't look well."

"Do you think that James told us everything?" he asked and Remus frowned at him.

"Probably not me, but you, yes. You two were closer than friends, you were family. I think James was closer to you than any member of your actual family, he would have told you anything," Remus tried to reassure Sirius though he wasn't exactly sure of the meaning of the conversation.

"Are you sure? Would you have told us anything?" he asked and Remus laughed.

"You know, once you accepted by lycanthropy, yes, I was more or less an open book and especially after you all learned how to do the Animagus enchantment. I felt that I was in your debt. You were the only ones who outside of my parents, some of the teachers, Dumbledore, actually understood the pain I was going through and wanted to help me. Yes. I would have told you anything."

Sirius raised an eyebrow as he looked at his friend. He knew most wizards hated or looked down upon werewolves but he could never treat his friend in such a cold and callous manner. He turned to the side.

"Harry was speaking to a snake when we went to the zoo," he told Remus who stared at him in shock as if that was the last thing that he expected. "Elizabeth noticed it too but she thought that he was playing around. Some kids roar at lions or bears but this…this was him actually talking to that snake and we all know that he's going to be a wizard and go to Hogwarts but I wasn't expecting that to happen."

Remus walked over to the bench and sat down, he stared ahead of him in shock still trying to wrap his mind around the idea. "I know they say it's hereditary but…no, if James accepted me then he knew that you would accept him. He would have told you. Maybe he wouldn't have told me but he would have told you, I think he'd have been stressed if you got that close to him and didn't know."

"Then what was Harry doing?" Sirius asked and Remus nodded.

"Maybe it's like the Muggles say with their male pattern baldness how it skips a generation. Sometimes parents, even the loving type of parents that James had don't tell their children everything. I mean, look at all the messed up stuff that your fa-"

"I'm nothing like my family," Sirius argued and Remus nodded understanding that reaction.

"Your family expected you to be a dark wizard just like them but you rebelled. You became the Black's black sheep or rather a black shaggy dog in sheep's clothing," he said in an attempt to lighten the mood but Sirius still looked haunted by what he had seen Harry do. "Harry, do you need help with him after hearing this? I don't know if I'd be able to help at all but there is always Lily's sister."

Sirius tried to stop himself from getting angry because of that. "No. I promised to raise him as if he were my own son and I'm not going to send him away. This doesn't change how much I care for him but only the obstacles that I need to navigate around if I want to give him the best upbringing possible. Him being a Parselmouth doesn't mean that he'll get automatically placed into Slytherin."

Remus hummed, "Salazar Slytherin was -" he started and Sirius shook his head.

"He had a much different upbringing than I plan for Harry to have and so did, you know who, Harry is going to grow up in a loving family where we can nurture his talents and answer any questions for him. I just wish that I knew what to do."

"Do you want my advice?" Remus asked and Sirius nodded. "I would wait until Harry is a bit older, try to get Dumbledore on board with the idea as well, and tell him everything, tell him about Lily and James and the fact that they would love him no matter what, just as you do. Then explain why he can talk to snakes and what it means to the people in our world."

"And that won't scare him?" Sirius asked.

"It most likely will but he'll understand why it's rare and why people are scared of it and uncomfortable but most importantly, it'll show him just how much you love him." Remus said and Sirius laughed uncomfortably.

"Yes," he said before gesturing to the door, "Since you're here do you want to have a drink or something to eat. I'd have to prepare it in the Muggle way but it feels rude to -"

"No. I don't want to wake up Harry or your fiancée, congratulations by the way and can you do me a favor, it's a favor that I asked James and Lily for as well," Remus shifted uncomfortably and Sirius laughed.

"I wasn't planning on having my wedding on the full moon when my best man can't attend," he said and Remus laughed. The two exchanged goodbyes and Sirius slumped onto the swing. So there might be some evidence that it had existed in the background of James's family but he definitely felt that if James knew he would share that secret. If he and James could be friends with Remus, especially such close friends as they were, then they wouldn't have kept secrets from each other.

"James," Sirius whispered as he stared up at the sky wishing that he could find his friend among the stars but James was gone, besides Harry there was very little of him left. Sirius knew that he had the key to their vault at Gringotts but that was emergency funding for before Harry finished his studies and then Sirius would hand him the key. He had plenty of money to provide for all three of them.

From the end of the road, Sirius blinked as he stared at a buck. He knew that the deer wasn't James, he knew almost every inch of James's body but that had to be a sign. It had to be James telling him to continue to fight for all of them. He looked at the sky again.

"Thank you for trusting me with Harry," he said with a weak smile. "He saved my life and kept me from doing something really stupid. Thank you for believing in my ability to raise him and keep him safe. I will always treasure him, no matter what abilities he shocks me with next."

End of Chapter Ten

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Nine

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