Apologies for the cliffhanger, my friends. I have recently found inspiration. Read away! :))
"We're good." Godfather and godson, bonded by blood and brothers spoke in unison.
"Thanks, but no." Harry added with a shrug. "We're quite cosy here, even if there's dog hair everywhere because someone sheds."
Sirius grinned at the pointed look. "Kid, if you become an Animagus, a skill that takes years of determination, skill, and hard work - though a cute werewolf is great for morale, let me tell you - then, and only then, can you complain about dog hair."
Harry rolled his eyes, opening his mouth for an obviously brilliant retort, because that was the kind of man he was, when Tonks interrupted - typical. "Are you serious? This is a brilliant offer, if I do say so myself. Are you completely sure?"
The two shared a look. After a moment of silent consideration, Sirius spoke for the both of them. "Yes. We are."
Tonks still looked skeptical, her bright bubblegum hair dimming to a dark blue, but she shrugged. "It's your choice, I guess. Mind if I stay for tea?"
"Of course not - Sirius gets rather dull for company as a dog. Sulks a lot while he's Padfoot." Harry smiled, tension dying down into a warmth that friends and family brought to the air.
Sirius apparently didn't deem that fit for a response, and rose to get the tea with pointed grace and ease, shooting Harry a glare out of the corner of his eye. Tonks grinned and finally accepted to offer to sit, settling in a plush armchair across from Sirius and Harry's.
"So, tell me, Tonks, what stage are we at right now? What's going on in the world as we speak?" Harry asked. After all, he needed to know how far along they were, when they could emerge into the world once more, Sirius a free and alive man, Harry once again a celebrated hero. Actually, it was very annoying with people swarming him whenever he went out. And he had thought it was bad as a child.
"Some Gryffindor student - something Bell - was cursed just a couple days ago. Imperius Curse, by the look of it. Nasty affair. She's on the Quidditch team, you know her, don't you?" Tonks replied, looking at him quizzically. Honestly, Harry wondered how much she'd already figured out.
"Yeah. Bloody good Chaser, she is. I remember that. It was -" Harry's mouth closed with a snap, just as Sirius's hand covered it.
"Harry. What did we say about giving away sensitive information that could ruin the timeline?"
"Not to do it." Harry's muffled voice replied. "Now get your hand away from my mouth, Rover."
"Don't call me Rover, Bambi." Sirius's nose wrinkled in disgust as he dropped his hand.
"Don't call me Bambi."
Tonks scoffed. "You are a mess, Harry James Potter. And that's coming from me. You're lucky I haven't tripped on your rug yet."
"You tripped when you walked in. Don't think I didn't see you, cousin of mine. Just because you caught yourself on the wall doesn't mean it didn't happen." Sirius grinned, handing Tonks her mug of tea, then Harry his before sitting down on the armchair.
"Where's your tea, Sirius?" Tonks asked, noticing the lack of a mug in Sirius's hand. "What, are you allergic?"
Sirius shuddered. "No, I just get random flashbacks of tea in the parlor with Mother and Father when I was nine. Torturous."
"Ah, Mum told me about family dinners. Apparently, you were the best form of entertainment, especially after Hogwarts." Tonks grinned, a gleam in her currently blood red eyes, and, no, Harry wasn't getting flashbacks from that.
Apparently, the grin that sent educators running, or lecturing, ran in the family, because a split second later, Sirius had a near identical one. "Yeah, the four of us would plan for months for those events."
Harry knew that tone. It was storytime.
"Have you got the tea? You know Moony gets all his best ideas on two hours of sleep and three mugs of Earl Grey." Sirius, young again with a carefree sparkle to his eyes, turned to a young version of the man Harry hated - Peter.
"Yeah, yeah. I brought two, don't get your knickers in a twist." Peter rolled his eyes, but didn't duck quickly enough to avoid Sirius's light swipe at the back of his head.
"Manners."
"That's a lot coming from you, Padfoot. We're gathered here today to celebrate the demise of your parents' sanity." And there was Harry's father, with the same hair, the same nose and gangly limbs.
"Trust me, mate, that happened long before I was born. I just… helped it along." Sirius grinned, silver eyes lighting up with mischief and the careless joy of youth.
"If you say so, Sirius. In any case, you're leading to the demise of our sanity." A dry voice, undoubtedly Remus, cut in. "Ah, Wormtail. Thanks for getting those from the kitchens."
"It was my idea." Sirius huffed, turning to Remus for approval. "Appreciate my genius."
"Mate, we all know Moony's the genius here. Shush and appreciate the fact we're helping you." James laughed, pure and bright.
Remus's face flushed slightly. "That's not true."
"Shut up, Remus, and stop denying the truth." Sirius grinned, slinging an arm around Remus's shoulders. "And, in case you forgot, Prongs, we helped you plenty a time in your goals for Lily's affection."
"She does hate you slightly less now." Remus agreed. "She can stand to be in the same room with you for over ten minutes now."
"That's improvement, my friend." Peter, typical, was the first to sit cross legged on the floor.
James sat on his left, with Sirius on Jame's other side, while Remus settled between Sirius and Peter, forming a neat little circle with paper and pens (courtesy of Remus) in the center. Remus took a sip of tea, and that's how they knew the magic was about to happen.
"Wait," and then there was Tonks, ruining the moment. Typical. "Remus gets superpowered when he drinks tea?"
"Basically, yeah. Now shush." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"I have a question too." Harry interjected. "Is that why he always chugged tea right before our class? The one with Malfoy in it?" Alright, so Malfoy wasn't a totally despicable person, but he had been a dick as a child. All those poor teachers.
"Yes, Harry, because he needed superpowers to survive a class with you and Malfoy in it. Now, can I continue?"
Harry and Tonks nodded sheepishly, Harry's cheeks flushing red.
"Well, come one, Moony, become SuperMoony. Give us something to work with."
"Last time I checked, Sirius, you were the idea man. Go on. Give us something." Remus raised an eyebrow. "I'm waiting."
Sirius pouted for a moment, or two, or three. Whatever, it was irrelevant. And then, brilliance struck, which was no surprise, because Sirius was a glowing beam of brilliance.
"We could set a timer spell that'll like, turn all the silverware into feral cats."
James whistled and slow clapped. "Impressive. Remus? Can you get this set up?"
"Get me another tea."
Several hours, and triple that amount of tea later, the details had been finished and Sirius had his instructions for the family dinner the next week.
"Are you ready for the most epic plan ever? Andromeda is going to love this. Reg will probably lecture me about it, though. Goody two shoes." Sirius's voice was fond, despite Regulus's habit of glaring at him whenever something even minorly inconvenient happened to their parents, as if it were Sirius's fault. (Fine, it was, but could you blame Sirius?).
"Yeah, yeah. The rest of your relatives are going to jump on the table screaming, because they equate feral cats with spiders. I guess that's what generations of inbreeding get you. That and… this." James gestured at Sirius.
"But you just pointed to all of me."
"And?"
"I hate you all. Wake up Wormtail, somebody."
Remus rolled his eyes and obliged, shaking Peter lightly until he awoke with a snort. "Wha-"
"We've finished." James informed him. "Remus, go to bed, you look like you haven't slept in three days, and I'm afraid to find out if it's true."
"It's not. It's been two and a half." Remus muttered, but stood and clambered into his bed anyway. "Night."
"Night."
"And that's what happened whenever I went home. My grand finale was right after this, actually, and then it was to the Potters for me. Thank Merlin I was done with that bullshit." Sirius finished cheerfully, stretching out in his armchair.
Harry, who had ended up sprawled on his stomach on the carpet, lifted his chin from his arms. "That's pretty cool, actually. Was it fun?"
"Incredibly."
"You were all batshit crazy." Tonks grinned, her hair in the process of changing from a straight, dark blue to a frizzy yellow. Her eyes had changed to a deep violet at some point, and Harry couldn't actually remember what she looked like when she showed up. How did he expect to be an Auror at this rate? It wasn't as if they wouldn't let him in anyway, but Harry wanted to earn it, to know this is something he had done, not his fame or a fan.
"It runs in the family." And that was Sirius, ruining Harry's train of thought as usual. Typical. Couldn't let Harry go into a mental rant about the detrimental effect of fame and fortune.
Ah, the woes of a celebrity.
"Yes, well, clearly you got most of it, Sirius, otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here mocking your godson after basically dying and traumatizing a younger version of said godson. And also just being yourself." A narrowing of violet eyes drove the point home.
"Cruel of you. I wish some other minor character had found us." Sirius stares straight at you, eyes digging into your soul. "Like, Ron Weasley or something."
"I am not a -"
"She is not a minor character, Mister Dog Star Black! And neither is Ron, my literal best friend? Yeah, that one. Mhm. Shut up, Sirius. Turn into a dog or something. Fetch." Harry threw his spoon across the living room and gave Sirius a flat look.
"You're just jealous you can't turn into an animal." Sirius said haughtily. "Well, I don't know about Tonks. Can you turn into something that isn't human?"
"I don't think so. I can turn a few body parts into animal parts, like my nose or ears, but not my entire body. It's a hard process. You would know."
"I would. It was - still is - very fun to turn into a dog at random moments and jump at Remus. That man's fight or flight instincts are screwed - he'll jump back but also try to shove me, but he's already too far away. Hilarious." Sirius grinned, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.
"I'm very surprised he hasn't dumped you yet." Harry said dryly.
"Moony would never! We've been going strong since fourth year, Harry. Except for the whole," Sirius gestured at nothing in particular, but the meaning was clear nonetheless, because what else would he be talking about? "thing. So nearly ten years! He's put up with a lot worse, and done it too."
"Dearest Remus?" Tonks said with put-upon shock. "Why, how dare you imply such things! Remus would never."
"No, no, of course not. It's not like in my first class with him he stuck a wad of something up Peeves's nose with a spell. Classic." Harry laughed, playing along. "He would never get caught up in such scandalous events!"
"Including me? Am I not scandalous enough for you?" Sirius's hand flew to his chest in mock offense. "The audacity. Harry, I expected better from my own godson. Tonks, I expected better from my own second cousin."
"You shouldn't have." Harry told him, lips quirking in a smile at the easy familiarity and family. "You raised me better than that."
"Better than my own expectations? Hardly. I disown you."
"So sad. I guess I'll never turn into a dog. Oh, the shame. To lose the opportunity to jump onto unsuspecting victims."
"This might surprise you guys, but that was the first thing I did when I achieved transformation. You see, Remus knew we were doing it, but we didn't really keep him updated - plausible deniability, y'know. So when I was first Padfoot…"
Remus lay on his stomach, elbows propped up and holding a book, clearly absorbed in it as he lay on his bed. A large black dog grinned from the doorway, tail wagging slowly as he crouched.
As Padfoot stalked forward, a low rumbling emitted from his throat. Remus looked up, brows furrowed in mild confusion, but he froze when he saw Padfoot, huge and dark and growling.
"Good dog?" Remus said hesitantly, reaching for his wand in a terribly slow, cautious movement.
Padfoot lunged, but instead of Remus's face being torn apart by vicious teeth - "As if." Sirius added - he was covered in slobber.
Padfoot's tail wagged like mad as he yipped, pulling back and sitting on the bed.
"... Sirius?"
He yipped again in affirmation.
"You asshole! That was fucking scary, Sirius! I thought you were a feral dog!"
An offended huff.
"Shut up."
Corban Yaxley was many things. Loyal, yes. He would serve his Lord until his final breath, without question or complaint. Ambitious as well - he was a Slytherin for a reason. He was also rather short-sighted, it seemed - after the Dark Lord's fall to the Potter boy years before, Corban had thought him finished.
Yaxley had been wrong.
And now, in an attempt to redeem his past mistakes, Yaxley threw himself into service for Voldemort, obeying his every whim and word. Certain benefits came from being in the Dark Lord's service of course - if he ever needed to vent his temper, there were always prisoners to interrogate. Or, he could just go and snatch a Mudblood from the street.
As it were, Yaxley paced through a forest, eyes sharp and attentive. There were reports of a werewolf here, and he had been trying to track it down and recruit it for his Lord. There were no slashes in the trees or anything he typically expected from a werewolf on its own, no deep gouges in the ground.
Laughter. Softly echoing through the trees.
Instantly, Yaxley was alert and ready, wand drawn from years of training at his disposal. He ducked behind the safety of a wizened oak, broad enough to shield him from view, though the fungus growing along its cracked bark rubbed off on his dark robes in a truly disgusting manner.
"Go on, Harry! Do tell your adoring fans your success story! What a hero!" The voice was deep enough to be masculine, and slightly roughened. Vaguely familiar, but what really caught Yaxley's attention was the name of his Lord's enemy, a pest to be dealt with and squashed under the Dark Lord's heel.
"Shut up. I literally told you it an hour ago, unnecessarily, by the way. Stop whining like the overgrown dog you are, Black."
Yaxley's eyes widened momentarily - Black? The House of Black, where Bellatrix and the deceased Sirius Black emerged from? That voice had sounded familiar, as if Yaxley had heard it. At least he had one theory, already.
"Actually, my dear Prongslett, you shouldn't address your godfather in such a manner. James would be appalled."
Sirius Black had been Potter's godfather, had he not? And yes, Bellatrix had killed him, but the mysterious veil that the Ministry housed was full of unanswered questions. Returning from it was improbable, but not impossible. And that would mean 'Harry' truly was the Potter brat… oh, Yaxley's Lord would be ever so pleased if he brought these two back to him.
"Don't call me that, you mutt. Suddenly I find myself having regrets over the whole 'let's travel back in time to save my ungrateful godfather from the icy hands of death' idea. You feel me?"
If he had not been trained from birth in the art of suppressing his reactions, Yaxley would have gaped. Was this not the same pest Yaxley had fought a few short months ago at the Department of Mysteries? Come to think of it, his voice had lost the cracking quality, and deepened slightly, rough around the edges but growing firmer.
However… if these were Sirius Black and a more skilled Harry Potter from the future… the light must have sustained a victory, for Potter's success story could only have been wrought out of… no… it couldn't be that. Yaxley refused to believe his master could be defeated again.
And yet…
Even so, this carried too much risk now for Yaxley to handle on his own. He simply couldn't chance losing them. He would leave at once to warn the Dark Lord. Yaxley nodded to himself, waiting for the noise of the two convicts to fade. As soon as it did, Yaxley stepped out of his hiding place and laughed, wild in his success.
"Sirius! Someone's here!" That wretched Potter brat had - had heard him!
I have to go. Now. This news must be hastened to the Dark Lord.
"Stop!" Yaxley tried to Apparate as Black called out, but wards had been set up. This would prove to be a problem. "I've got a wand trained on you, and so does my godson. Freeze."
Yaxley did not do that. He fired off a spell, setting fire to the dead brush that soon erupted into towering flames and took off running.
"Aguamenti!"
"He's getting away!"
"I know, Sirius, but we can't let the fire spread!"
"Aguamenti!"
Harry put out of the last of the fire moments later after Sirius pitched in as well, and tore off after the man - a Death Eater, with Harry's luck. They had to stop the Death Eater, before he reported not only their location, but whatever he had figured out overhearing Harry and Sirius's conversation.
And thus, the protagonist who hadn't yet died bolted in the direction the Death Eater had gone, hearing the familiar pant of Padfoot as the black dog raced by him, faster on four legs than two.
"We have to get him! Who knows what he overheard!" Harry bit out as he pumped his legs faster, crashing through the undergrowth. He could see the man ahead, trying to get past the wards Sirius had hastily cast.
Padfoot barked something that sounded suspicously like 'I know' and lunged ahead, jaws snapping inches from the Death Eater's legs. Victory was in grasp as Harry closed in, when the huge dog yelped and dropped back, whining. His fur was wet with blood on his side, and the smell of burning fur filled Harry's nose.
He cursed and cast the water spell, cooling the wound and patting the dog's head. "Stay here."
Harry took off again, wand out. He cast a severing charm on a tree right in front of the Death Eater, and it crashed down in front of him, making him fall and letting Harry close in.
"Stop! Put your hands up and drop your wand. Now," Harry ordered, his own trained on the man. A wand thudded on the forest floor and he raised his arms slowly. And then Harry screamed, once again caught in the indescribable pain of the Cruciatus Curse.
Harry couldn't think, couldn't breathe, pain overwhelming everything else, his throat raw already, and then it - stopped. And he blinked, and there was Sirius's pale face hovering above him, speaking and -
"He's gone."
Yaxley stood in front of the polished doors and prepared for an audience that his Lord had kindly granted. He had much to tell, and the Dark Lord would surely be very interesting. Yaxley had to stifle a laugh - the Potter boy really had no idea the trouble he was about to face.
((A couple hundred word chase, switching views, then back to Yaxley as he reports.