Thank you for all my reviews! Lady E (how could you ever promise that??), fuzzyfishbowl, elephant-chimes, Mornel, Wesley and Sela.
Standard disclaimers apply. Sirius' song based on The Vandals' 'If The Gov't Could Read My Mind'.
***
Sirius gave Harry a tour of the house before they sat down for a meal with Remus. Sirius grinned happily at Harry who was shovelling shepherds pie into his mouth with every sign of enjoyment.
"So, what do you think?" Sirius demanded, gesturing wildly with his knife and fork still in his hands and nearly doing Remus a serious injury. Harry looked up at him and grinned.
"It's brilliant, Sirius!" Sirius grinned back at him. "This is a bit spooky though. You know what I mean? A bit weird."
"Nah, it's great! I'll take you on a tour of the village tomorrow, there's some really interesting sights. Some interesting ghosts, too. The curate of the church is still around, I think he still thinks he's alive, he came at me the other day while I was browsing the village records and tried to stab me with a ghostly poker." Sirius paused and took a mouthful of pie while Harry laughed.
"So what have you been doing all summer then?" asked Harry, after he'd got his breath back.
"Not much, just getting this place ready. The village is going to be the headquarters of the Order. That'll amuse old Carne." Sirius grinned across the table at Remus. "You remember Tonks, Harry? The witch with the pink hair? Well, Remus has been seeing a lot of her lately. We're just waiting for them to announce a wedding date."
"We've just been having Occlumency lessons together, that's all," muttered Remus, turning slightly pink.
"Rubbish! We all know you fancy her, Moony."
"I do not!"
"Well, the lessons take an hour each, right? But you're often away for a lot longer than that. What do you do then?"
"We discuss Dumbledore's plans," mumbled Remus, staring fixedly at his meal. Sirius laughed and started singing.
"I could stockpile spells and join a militia, but I'd rather stay at home and kiss ya, it never matters when I'm with you. He can telepathically monitor my mind, I'm not scared of what he'll find, let him do what he's gonna do, cos if Voldemort can read my mind he knows I'm thinking of you!" Sirius winked at Harry as Remus turned a deeper shade of red. "All right, you don't fancy her, I believe you. So who from the Order would you most like to shag?"
"Sirius!" Harry and Sirius burst out laughing at the look of indignation on Remus' face. "What are we, fifteen?"
"Just a little light-hearted dinner conversation, Moony. So come on, who?"
"Well, Tonks actually, but that doesn't mean anything!" he added quickly, as Harry and Sirius laughed harder. "I wouldn't fancy Arabella Figg, McGonagall or Molly Weasley, Tonks is simply the most attractive of the lot . . ."
"And you want to get into her knickers!" announced Sirius triumphantly, turning to Harry with a grin. "So, Harry, whose knickers do you want to get into?"
"Yours, of course." Harry clamped his mouth shut, his eyes widening in horror. Had he really just admitted to wanting to sleep with his godfather? He recovered quickly and laughed, to make it look as though he was joking. "Well, if we're still talking about the Order, McGonagall's my teacher, Mrs Weasley is my best friend's mum, that would be too weird, Dumbledore's ancient, Snape's a greasy slimeball and Remus wants Tonks, so it would have to be you."
"The boy's got a point!" laughed Remus. Sirius stared at Harry for a moment, before laughing too, resolving to talk to Harry about it later on. Just for a moment, he'd felt . . . what? Maybe a little spark of hope that Harry could possibly feel that way about him? It was impossible, wasn't it? But there had been that moment . . . he had to be sure . . .
"Don't blame ya, mate, faced with the other choices! As for me, well, that McGonagall . . ." They all laughed, and the moment passed. Throughout the rest of the meal, Sirius kept stealing glances at Harry, trying to get any sign from him that he'd meant what he said earlier, but Harry was keeping his gaze firmly on his plate when he wasn't talking. Sirius sighed, and slumped back in his chair. He knew that it would be somewhat inappropriate to act on his feelings for Harry, but all the same . . . he couldn't help thinking, what if Harry did feel the same?
Later that evening, after Remus had left to go and meet Tonks for another Occlumency lesson (Sirius remarked that the lessons were getting ever more frequent, Remus told him to shut up and mind his own business), Sirius and Harry pulled down the blackout blinds, lit the lamps, and settled down on the sofa together.
Whatever Sirius said, Harry felt it was slightly bizarre to be living in a village that had been abandoned in the early 1940s, but despite that it was still a hundred times better than living with the Dursleys. He'd been warned by Moody not to stray away from the village, but he didn't want to anyway – he was with Sirius, he was nowhere near his relatives, and it was so peaceful here. He couldn't wait to explore.
Sirius turned to Harry, folded his arms, crossed his legs and attempted to look serious for once. Harry laughed when he caught sight of his godfather.
"You look ridiculous! What's that look for?"
"Well, as your godfather I feel honour bound to be able to nose into your private life. You're sixteen now, susceptible to certain urges and whatnot, and I think it's time we had a little chat."
"What about?"
"Girls. Or boys. Which do you prefer?"
"Oh." Harry shrugged. He found it highly amusing that Sirius wanted to talk about his sex life, or lack thereof, and was vaguely worried in case he would be on the receiving end of some 'fatherly advice'. "Dunno. Never really thought about it."
"Come off it! You're sixteen! If you haven't done it already then you must have thought about it! What happened to that Ravenclaw girl you liked?"
"Cho?" Harry shrugged. "Dunno. Think she went off me a bit. Doesn't matter, anyway."
"So who do you fancy then? Hermione? Ron? Ron's sister?" Harry sniggered. He could just imagine the look on Ron's face if he ever even so much as thought about Ginny in that way.
"I think Ron and Hermione fancy each other, to tell you the truth. I just wish they'd stop bickering and snog for once. And Ginny's dating Dean Thomas."
"But what about you?" persisted Sirius. Harry shrugged again.
"There's no-one really. I kind of don't want anyone at the moment anyway."
"Why not?" Harry hesitated, unsure of what to say. Should he tell Sirius about his fears about Voldemort? Or just mention that he found his godfather sexy as hell, and couldn't imagine having those kind of feelings for anyone else? He decided it would be safer to go for the Voldemort option.
"Well, I do have the most evil wizard of all time after me. What if I do get close to someone, and he uses them to get to me? Or if he killed them? I couldn't handle it. I don't want it."
"You shouldn't worry about that, Harry," said Sirius softly, putting his arms around Harry's shoulders. "Don't let Voldemort make you afraid of living. It's okay to be scared; hells, even I'm a bit scared, we all are. But we're all working on it, believe me, Dumbledore's got a plan. Thanks to Snape we have some idea of what Voldemort's plans are, so we're able to counter them before they're put into action. We're at a sort of stalemate situation right now, Voldemort won't act until he knows what Dumbledore's planning, or something, I don't know, I fell asleep when Snape started talking." Sirius broke of and gave Harry a grin. "But what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Sit around and wait for something to happen, or just go on with our lives?"
"So you're saying I shouldn't be scared? Sirius, I'm terrified of this war!"
"I'm not saying don't be scared, fear is helpful to a certain degree as it keeps you alive. But don't let it get so far in that you're too frightened to live, otherwise what's the point? You'd be better to go and hand yourself over to the Death Eaters right now." Sirius touched Harry's chin and pushed it up until he was staring into Harry's startling green eyes. "Your father was afraid. But he didn't let that stop him from enjoying the time he had with you and Lily."
"My dad was scared?"
"He was terrified of not being there for you when you grew up, but he refused to let it get him down. You know that song I was singing earlier? He used to sing that to you and Lily. He treasured every single moment he had with you; he loved you more than life."
"And he died for me," whispered Harry. Sirius took a deep breath and looked away. Harry looked down at the floor while Sirius composed himself. "Sorry."
"Don't apologise. He was my best friend in the world, and I miss him like hell. But hey," Sirius attempted a weak grin. "I have you now. I expect before long you'll be nicking Snitches and trying to impress the ladies with your Quidditch skills. Or the men, of course." Sirius fell silent and tightened his grip on Harry, lost in his memories of James. Harry relaxed, enjoying the feeling of being close to Sirius and thinking over what he'd just said. There was a lot of sense in it, of course, but what if someone close to him was hurt? There was no way he'd be able to handle it, he was already worried to death about the Weasleys, Hermione and Sirius. No. Best if he didn't let anyone else get too close . . .
