Chapter 5:

Back at the Burrow POV

"Just to make sure, I heard him say Leaky Cauldron, did everyone else?" Ron asked cautiously.

Everyone nodded, Sirius and Remus just looked confused, Sirius turned to Remus,

"we really need to hear this story." Remus nodded in agreement.

Next went Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny, Arthur, Molly, Remus, then finally Sirius.

Everyone. Back together

Harry was still trying to get his bearings when one by one everyone started showing up. Mr. Weasley stepped through, not a hair out of place, whereas the kids ended up in a tangled mess on the floor.

"Ah Harry! Good, we were worried." Harry blushed at Mr. Weasleys comment.

"To be honest, I was worried too." Harry laughed at his admission as did Mr. Weasley. The last of the group and come through when the kids finally un-tangled themselves. Molly and Remus looked around and made sure everyone was accounted for while Sirius made his way over to Harry,

"Doin' alright kid?" Sirius clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just not my favorite way to travel, but still better than a portkey." Sirius looked at Harry confused, this seems to be a reoccurring event, maybe Harry would have to tell Sirius everything.

"I'll tell you the story later," Harry reassured Sirius. Sirius nodded then looked to address the group,

"Okay everyone, Remus and I are going to head to the Ministry of Magic, it shouldn't take very long, lets meet up back here in an hour, then we can all go to Gringotts together. Agreed." Sirius looked at the group and everyone agreed. Sirius and Remus went North up Diagon Alley while everyone else went South.

The Group POV

Mrs. and Mr. Weasley talked up front while the kids remained relatively quiet.

"How are you feeling about all of this Harry?" Ginny asked, she was the first one to break the silence, everyone turned to Harry.

"I'm…cautiously optimistic, these things normally don't work out for me, so I don't want to get my hopes up but at the same time I'm already excited."

A small sniff could be heard from up front where the Weasley parents were walking, Arthur leaned into Molly consoling her. Molly whipped around and hugged Harry tightly for a minute before pulling in all of the kids, 'her kids' if anyone asked, she thought of them as hers, blood or not she loved them all. She looked squarely at Harry,

"This will work Harry, I don't care what we have to do but, you deserve this, all three of you do. It will happen."

Harry's throat felt thick as he swallowed back some tears, all he could do was nod. Mrs. Weasley turned around and they kept on, stopping first at Madam Malkins to get Ron and Ginny new robes. Harry didn't really need any but he bought a few black robes to have just in case Ron or he needed one, it was something he had done since 2nd year, he would buy extra supplies and store them in his trunk in case him or Ron needed anything. He knew it was hard on the Weasleys to make sure every kid got multiple of supplies, he offered to help pay since they let him stay at their house every summer since 2nd year, but they always reject it, so Harry buys extra robes, and supplies, and snacks, to make sure his best made also had everything he needed, Hermione did similar things for Ginny.

After Madam Malkins was the Apothecary to stock up on potions ingredients, though Harry wasn't sure how he felt about potions this year, with Snape being uncharacteristically kind, Harry could only hope that this possibly meant things might be changing in a positive way. Harry needed a new cauldron as his had rusted through at the end of last year, he also needed almost everything else he could possibly need for potion making, his stock was quite empty. Finishing up at the Apothecary and it was an hour later so they all headed to Leaky Cauldron to meet up with Sirius and Remus.

Sirius & Remus POV

Sirius and Remus made their way to the Ministry in relatively comfortable silence. Sirius couldn't help but notice all the stares, people who were still wary even though he had been proven innocent. Sirius snorted,

"Relax Padfoot, everyone will come around sooner or later."

Remus, always the one to take the high road, Sirius wasn't sure he could always be that person, is that the type of person that James would want to raise his son.

"Moony, I don't know if I can do this. What if I'm a horrible parent."

Sirius exploded with worry, he wasn't one to normally talk about his feelings, but he was concerned he wouldn't be good for Harry. Remus could not believe what he was hearing,

"Padfoot, there's no one else that James and Lily would want to raise Harry. You love him as if he's your own, he needs you. Bloody Hell, he WANTS you to be his parent." Remus was only getting louder, and Sirius was not sure if he felt better but he definitely felt amused, it had been a while since he had seen Moony lose it like this.

"I swear sometimes you almost loved Harry more than James or Lily, all the times you would kidnap him, even though you KNEW Lily was going to kill you later, or the fact that you were the ONLY one to be able to get him to sleep when he was a baby." Sirius smiled sadly at the long past memories.

"I guess we'll just have to see, but it's going to take both of us for this ya know." Sirius glanced meaningfully at Remus.

"I don't know if all three of us living together is in our best interest, what about the fu-"

"We will get a basement that we can lock up safe and make sure to give you the wolfsbane potion, or we get a place with a large forest so you can run and we just make sure you can't go outside a certain boundary?"

"I don't know…" Remus was hesitant, he didn't want to hurt anyone, least of all Harry or Padfoot.

"I won't take no for an answer Moony, it's happening. I'll contact a realtor right away, after we get back to the house. Plus, I need to get the fuck out of Grimauld place." Remus stifled a laugh,

"all right mate."

It took about 15 minutes to get from the Leaky Cauldron to the Ministry of Magic. They walked in and went up to Minister Fudge's office. The elevator opened and there sat a short, portly woman, she had a dark brown hair and a fair complexion and a kind face, she looked up as they walked in and she squeaked and picked up the phone.

"Minister Mr.'s Black and Lupin are here to see you."

She hung up and looked at the two, "go on back fellas!"

She smiled widely at the two and they walked through the door behind her. Fudge was sitting at his desk with a stack of papers to his right that he was pulling from, slightly reading, signing, and putting on top of a stack to the left.

Sirius cleared his thrat, "Minister."

Fudge slowly set his quill down and raised his head to look at Sirius.

"Black, Lupin, sit down please I have some paperwork. First this is paperwork stipulating that all your assets have been unfrozen and the sum of 5 million galleons for each year that you were imprisoned has been deposited."

Sirius looked it over and signed it and handed it back, Fudge handed back a packet that had a few pages,

"this is the list of all black properties and who owns them."

Sirius just held that, he would look at it later, maybe they don't need a realtor after all. Fudge pulled two stacks of paper and set one stack in front of Sirius and the other in front of Remus.

"This is paperwork regarding the custody of one Harry James Potter, I understand that you two want to take him full time and raise him with split custody."

"Yes Minister," Sirius agreed.

Fudge nodded, "very well then."

Fudge highlighted each section for them to sign or initial. Sirius and Remus handed back their stacks and Fudge skimmed through making sure nothing was missing. He pushed a button on his desk,

"Greta I need two sets of copies of all this paperwork for Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black please."

The stacks of paper flew out the door and supposedly to Greta. A few minutes later the stacks flew back in. Fudge handed the copies to the two men sitting in front of him.

"All right gentlemen, everything is in order it so seems. You are free to go and once again Sirius let me say I am sorry."

Sirius didn't say anything in response, this didn't mean that they were good, Fudge was still smearing Harry's name. They turned and left to walk back to the Leaky Cauldron, it had been about an hour and the rest of the group should be there by now. Sirius and Remus didn't say anything, they really didn't know what to say, neither of them thought they would get this far, Sirius never thought he would be free, and Remus never thought he would have a child to call his own, being able to adopt Harry was a dream come true for him. Up a head they spotted the group standing around outside the Leaky Cauldron, what they couldn't see is what was going on, it was very clear the group was agitated. There was no Molly or Arthur in sight, Remus and Sirius looked at each other with concerned faces and rushed towards the group.

As they got closer, they could distinctly hear Harry, and another voice that seemed familiar but they couldn't place. The yelling got louder the closer they got and all of a sudden Harry's head dropped and disappeared while the rest of the group backed up, everyone was yelling now. Sirius and Remus pushed through to the front and pulled apart Harry and Draco.

Draco ripped out of Sirius's hold, "hands off, cousin."

Draco sneered, "remember what I said Potter, you-"

"And you remember what I said Malfoy, you come around anyone then you're done, no daddy to save you hear." Malfoy glared, turned sharply and walked away, followed by Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson.

Remus let go of Harry while they stared at him expectantly,

"well!" Exploded Sirius impatiently,

"Well what?" Harry was annoyed, it's not like he went looking for a fight with Malfoy.

"What was that about?" Remus asked a little more calmly then Sirius.

"It was nothing. Don't worry about it."

Sirius looked at the other kids frustrated as hell but none of them said a word. He turned to Harry and looked him squarely in the eye,

"We will talk about this later."

"Whatever." Harry said, his eyes not meeting Sirius's, he turned out of Sirius's grip and walked away, before Sirius could follow him, Molly and Arthur had come outside. . Molly and Arthur had come out and did not react well when they saw Harry and the state he was in, dirty, clothes askew and ripped, bloody lip, another scar on his forehead (great just what he needed, another scar). When everyone was calmed down they all agreed that Sirius and Remus would just come back another day to go to Gringotts. As they turned to head towards the Flu to head home, a sharp ahem was heard behind them, Sirius turned first and groaned at the pink mess in front of him.