The Difference a Letter Makes

by Mariann's

AU PoA - Third year - what could happen if Sirius Black had one moment of reason while trying to catch the Rat at Hogwarts? - SBRL slash - Complete

4. Getting back into Life

4. Getting Back Into Life

Remus and Sirius left the common room through the portrait hole. The Fat Lady wished them both a good night.

"Still quite the love birds, I see," she said.

"We are, my lady, we definitely are! I consider myself the happiest man on earth right now, for I am in love with the most beautiful and wonderful creature on this planet!" Sirius said.

Remus blushed.

"Oh stop it! You're going to make me blush!"

"Going to? You are blushing, love! And it's very becoming, don't you think so, too, my lady?"

"Yes, I do think so. But now you should better go!"

"I wish you a good night, my lady! Some other time!" Sirius said cheerfully and put his arm around Remus, then they walked through the long corridor and finally down the stairs.

Remus enjoyed Sirius' arm around his shoulder. He leaned into it and put his own around Sirius' waist. He looked forward to getting back to his rooms. He wouldn't sit down anywhere, he'd pull Sirius straight on the bed. When they got there, Remus just moved on into the bedroom and Sirius asked, scandalised:

"Remus! It's still much too early, you don't want to go to sleep, do you?"

Remus grinned and played along.

"Oh, but of course, early to bed, early to rise, you know me! Besides, it's not precisely sleep I have in mind…"

"Not? So what could it be then? Not that innocent me knows anything to do in a bed but sleep…"

"Cough, cough…" Remus feigned a coughing fit.

Sirius raised an eyebrow. Remus pulled him closer and kissed him.

"You are too cheeky for your own good, Padfoot," he chided.

"I didn't oppose to the kiss, now did I?"

"Not exactly, but I'm not entirely convinced…"

This time Sirius pulled Remus in and kissed him deeply. Remus moaned a bit, and coaxed Sirius' lips open, then invaded his mouth with his tongue. Sirius met it and their tongues curled around each other, touched, caressed, were pulled over teeth and lips and back again pushed against the other tongue. Sirius felt Remus' arousal through his robes and closed his eyes in delight. They held onto each other tightly. Remus started to loosen the clasps on Sirius' black robe. All of a sudden he pulled back.

"I just remembered something, Siri! Shouldn't you tell your parents that you're well and free before they hear it from the press or the radio? And I'll need to send an owl to Papa, too."

"Are they still well? Remus, I'm almost scared! How did they react, do you know?"

"They were both very sad about it all, Siri, I don't think they believed you were guilty. I haven't been in close contact with them, though, and when we met we all tried to avoid the subject."

"I understand that. We have until tomorrow night and tomorrow is Saturday. Can you leave here?"

"Sure, it's weekend and I'm a teacher, not a student, you dummy!"

Sirius grinned.

"'M just so used to being a student here – it's still a strange concept that you changed to the other side!"

Remus laughed, too, then looked at his watch.

"Let's floo call them. That's what I can do from here, I can call, and I can be called, but it's not connected for travel."

"Yes, let's do that. As long as we're still decent…"

Remus pulled Sirius by the hand into the living room and threw some floo powder into the fire. Then he called:

"Sheridan Place…"

It took a while, but then Remus' father turned up and said:

"Remus! Did something happen?"

"Hi Papa. Yes, you could say so. Sirius is here."

"What? And you're not calling the ministry?"

"No. He's been cleared this morning, Papa, he's innocent! It was Peter!"

"Oh my! I always had that suspicion, but you brushed it away, remember? So how did you find out?"

"We caught Peter who wasn't dead at all, but had spent twelve years as a rat. He was a pet of one of the students here, Sirius knew and he wrote me a letter to get hold of the rat. I did and then everything came out. That's why Fudge has been arrested by the way. Did you hear that?"

"Yes, I did, but why is there a connection?"

"Remember, that he was the first on the spot when Sirius was arrested? Several minutes before the first Aurors turned up, in fact, and to restrain Sirius, he tried to put him under Imperius, then, as this didn't work, he put him under Cruciatus! That's the true reason he's been arrested now. Grover was here this morning and he couldn't but take Fudge into custody after that."

"Did he admit he used the curses?"

"Of course not, but Sirius said under Veritaserum that he had done it. I don't think anyone can lie under that stuff."

"Oh my. So, where is he?"

"I'm here, Edward, good evening," Sirius said.

"Hello, Sirius! I'm so glad to see you! You do look a lot better than those posters already…"

"Thanks. Poppy looked me over and repaired my teeth, Remus took care of my hair. And now I feel like a halfway decent person again."

"Good! It was nice of you to call!"

"We thought we have to do that before you hear it through the WWN news or the Daily Prophet. We did the easy bit first, now it's on to Sirius' parents."

"They will be happy, Sirius! I've met them the other day and your Dad said that he didn't really care whether you did it or not, he hoped you'd get away and not be captured again."

Sirius' face lit up when he heard that. Now he wasn't so scared to face his parents anymore. He smiled and thanked Edward:

"Thank you so much for telling me that, Edward! I'm not half as nervous to contact them anymore now."

"That's okay."

"Oh, Papa, I've got Sirius' Gringotts key in my desk. Top right drawer – there's a small box with several things, could you owl that to me, please?"

"Certainly, Remus. I'll go and check it right away and I'll send CeeCee over with it. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"No, that's all. It's all fine here."

"So, do you like teaching, Remus?"

"I'd never thought I could like it as much, Papa! It's great and the students seem to like me, so I really feel great at the moment. Severus' potion is a bit worse than yours though… I think he does it on purpose."

"Wouldn't put it past him. If you want me to make it for you, just say it."

"No, it's not that bad."

"Okay. I could always teach Sirius how to make it, he was as good at Potions as Snape," Edward offered.

"Oh, that's a good idea. If you're willing, Siri…"

"What potion? Oh, the one you take before the full moon? I'd love to, Edward. We'll talk about that soon, okay?"

"Any time, Sirius! He's getting it from Severus, but having another back-up couldn't be wrong. And I'm sure yours will turn out more like mine. It's not very nice stuff, but it helps."

"Well, I'm sure if Snape found a way to make it uglier than necessary, he did it," Sirius said.

"He's only doing it on Dumbledore's order anyway," Edward remarked.

"Never mind, Papa, I'm getting it and that's all I need. We'll call later, I think we ought to call Siri's parents now," Remus said.

"Always avoiding the subject, Remus. But anyway, have a good night and regards to your parents, Sirius!"

"Good night, Papa!" Remus huffed.

"Good night, Edward," said Sirius.

Edward vanished from the fireplace. Remus took another pinch of the powder and threw it into the flames, then he called:

"Black Manor…"

A minute later Duncan Black replied.

"Who is it? – Oh, Remus, it's you! Why are you calling us?"

"Dad, there's something that happened today that might make you very happy," Remus said.

"Is it something with Sirius? Did he contact you?"

"Yes, he was able to contact me. He sent me a letter, which I got yesterday in the morning and informed me that a student here has a pet, which was in fact an Animagus named Peter Pettigrew. We got hold of it and questioned Peter, after I made him show himself. Peter was the spy, Dad! Peter was the secret keeper, too, and Peter was the one who betrayed James and Lily Potter to Voldemort and Peter was the one who killed all the Muggles back then. Sirius has been pardoned and is now in negotiation next week with Ashley Grover for a compensation. Grover has been leading the investigation this morning. I was able to get Sirius into Hogwarts early this morning and by the early afternoon everything was over."

"Oh sweet Merlin, Remus, that's the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me since that dratted day! Where is he? Is he still with you?"

"Yes, he's here. Just a bit shy, I suppose…"

Sirius moved closer to the fireplace again. He was glad, that Remus had taken over the explaining. He was already afraid he'd have to explain too much too many times in the next days.

"Hello, Dad! I'm right here," he said.

"Sirius! Oh Merlin, you're there and in one piece! Can you come down soon?"

"Yes, Dad, I can, once the public announcement is over I'll be free to travel as I like. I'm afraid of all of the big fuss everyone will make."

"I can understand that, my son. I'm so relieved to hear the good news, just you wait until I tell your Mum! She's still out in the shop, she's taken to keeping it open late on Friday. You'll have to come Sunday, okay?"

"We'll be there, Dad. We'll talk about it all then, okay?"

"Yes, Sirius, that will be fine. Oh, I can't wait for Adara to come home!" Duncan was so excited now, that he almost forgot he was still talking to his son.

"Give Mum my love, Dad. And we're to send regards from Edward Lupin, we just spoke to him."

"We met him two weeks ago."

"Yes, he's told us."

"Anyway, I'd better let you go. We'll see you on Sunday. Come for lunch, both of you, okay?"

"Okay. We might bring Harry along, Dad. I'm going to claim my guardianship over him."

"Harry? Oh, the Potter boy. Yes, sure, bring him along! We'd love to meet him, if he's to become our grandchild!"

"He's a very fine kid, Dad. Good night!"

"Good night, lads!"

"Good night, Dad," Remus said.

After that they both took a deep breath at the same time. And laughed, relieved. Sirius embraced Remus:

"Oh, I'm so glad you remembered that! I would have totally forgotten!"

"They would have every right to be furious, if you had!"

"Absolutely. – But how was that again with doing something in that bed of yours that's not sleeping?"

"You've got a one track mind, Sirius. And a dirty one on top of everything!" Remus teased.

"You're a damn good teaser, Moony, are you as good as that in holding what you promise?"

"What did I promise?" Remus asked innocently.

"This!"

Sirius groped Remus' slightly hard cock. Remus grinned and leaned into the touch, then said seductively:

"Oh, you bet I'm even better in holding what I promise – you only have to follow me."

"I'm following you to the end of the earth, Moony."

"That will be right back here, as the planet is a ball, love."

Sirius grinned. They went back to the bedroom, undressed and hopped right into the bed. The house-elves had been in to clean up. So the bed was neatly made, but they didn't have an eye for it, when they pulled the covers back and just fell down on the soft mattress. It was different than in the morning. Both wanted completion now. Both seemed to be in a hurry to make the first real contact with each other after the long separation and both rolled around on the bed, legs and arms holding onto the other as if they were drowning. Remus landed on top. He was a lot stronger than Sirius, not only because Sirius was but skin and bones, but because there was a strength in Remus that was not visible from the outside.

He pinned Sirius on the bed and leaned down to kiss him. Sirius relented and just enjoyed the kiss, which was incredibly tender after their fierce beginning. Remus wrapped his arms around Sirius and held him tight, while he started to undulate on top of Sirius, let him feel his erection and pressed it down on his partner's. Now that he had gained the upper hand, Remus went on to caress his lover. Slowly, with both hands and tongue, the latter sometimes supplemented with his lips and teeth, he travelled from Sirius' mouth over his earlobes, the neck, bit lovingly down on the throat, continued by way of the nipples down to the navel. Sirius moaned. These were sensations he had completely forgotten. The Dementors had been good enough with their treatments to pull all his memories of the good side of their relationship out of him. Completely, he had thought. But now the feelings came back. Sirius started to remember how it felt, when they had made love in their youth. He breathed hard and sighed, moaned, then screamed, when Remus buried his nose in the thick bush of black pubic hair. Sirius' cock was hard. Remus laved it and caressed the balls with his hand.

"Oh Merlin, Sirius, this is just so good…" Remus murmured.

Sirius had lost his ability to speak in coherent phrases, even words wouldn't come out anymore. Remus continued to treat him, until he couldn't hold back anymore. Sirius held out a bit longer than in the morning, when everything had been a bit of a surprise, but he still didn't last very long. Remus didn't care. He'd train his Siri until he was as tireless as he had been in the days of their youth.

Spent, Sirius found his speech again.

"Oh Remus, it's unbelievable! You know I remembered almost every time we made love in Azkaban, but for the life of me I couldn't remember how it FELT? It was sheer torture! This morning – it was like a surprise I even got an erection, but now you are doing all this and it's all coming back!"

Sirius broke out in tears. Remus let them flow, he held Sirius and postponed his own completion, Sirius needed to get these Azkaban horrors out of his system as well as he possibly could. It took a long time. Once Sirius let his tears flow he couldn't stop them. Remus rubbed his back softly, kissed him on the forehead and otherwise just held him. Finally Sirius was exhausted and fell asleep. Remus pulled up the blankets and covered them both, pulled Sirius into his arms and tried to sleep, too. He was too deep in thoughts though. He wondered how Sirius would cope with all the publicity he'd get in the next weeks. How long would it take until the whole uproar would be over. Sirius needed to heal, and huge crowds would not be helping him. And Remus couldn't be with him during the week. He planned to take Duncan Black aside on Sunday and ask him to stay close to Sirius as well as he could.

Remus went to sleep, it had been a very turbulent day and he was tired enough to sleep until the next evening. But they woke up long before noon. Remus was glad it was Saturday. He looked down on Sirius who was just opening his eyes. They were still a bit bloodshot from all the crying the night before. Remus stroked over Sirius' cheeks and smiled down at him.

"Love you, sweetheart," he said.

"Love you, too, Moony," Sirius mumbled.

They proceeded to repeat the previous night's performance, but this time Sirius held through a bit longer and Remus got to actually get his part as well. He cried out in bliss when he entered Sirius for the first time in twelve years. This was home! He felt elated, just knowing that he did what he did and with whom. Then he started to thrust, slowly, building up in speed and intensity and he didn't stop until he came. Sirius panted under him, pulled him down and held him tight.

"Sirius! Sirius! I – oh, Merlin, this is so good…" Remus sighed.

He buried his face in Sirius' neck. Then he admitted:

"You're not the only one who nearly forgot how it feels…"

"We need to get used to having it again, love," Sirius said tenderly.

"Yes. It will take some time. We've got a lot of repairing to do."

But they decided to get up and face the world. Today would be the last day they could hide in their cocoon, as the next day would mean the public announcement of Sirius' innocence and acquittal, therefore there was a lot of mail and some reporters to be expected and feared. They only told Albus of their plans to head down to Black Manor and also asked if they would be allowed to bring Harry along.

"Yes, if he wants to come and meet your parents, I see no reason not to allow this. I'm glad you contacted them, Sirius."

"Remus reminded me, to be honest. I'm very glad he did," Sirius admitted.

"We'd best go and look for Harry then," Remus suggested.

"Do you know where he's hanging out on Saturdays?"

"Well, we'd best start in the common room, I'd guess."

"Okay. – Oh, and Albus, would it help Harry, if I wrote him a permission slip for the Hogsmeade weekends?"

"Certainly. Give it to Minerva, she'll gladly add him to the list of those who have it. He didn't take it well that he wasn't allowed to go."

"He's thirteen. I don't think I would have taken it well either, at that age," Sirius said and smiled. Then he remembered something else.

"Oh, and I was wondering who supplied him for Hogwarts and all? I had the Potters' Gringotts key when I was arrested and it was of course taken away," he asked.

"Yes, I know. The Ministry sent it to me and I set up a smaller vault for Harry with only a small part of his inheritance. He's supplied himself. I'll give the original key back to you."

"I'm relieved! I've taken it to put several things into their vault which I found in the house. There should be three large boxes with material in the vault. Anything I found in James' and Lily's drawers and desks I thought might be important I took out and stored it in the vault."

"I had seen these boxes, but never looked at them. Good to know, because we were wondering where all the papers went to. Only their wills were found, but these had been kept at their lawyer's office."

"Oh, that's why I haven't found them. I was looking for them to put them into reach of the investigators."

Then they went to look for Harry and found him in the library, where he was sitting with Hermione and a grumbling Ron, who hated to spend free time in the library.

"Hi guys!" Sirius said lightly.

"Hi Sirius, hi Remus!" Harry said and beamed at them.

"Good morning all."

"Harry, I'll be going down to see my parents tomorrow. Would you like to come with us? Professor Dumbledore just gave us permission to take you along, if you want to," Sirius said.

"Oh, I don't know… would you want to take me along then?"

"Yes, Harry, I would want to take you with us. I've already asked my Dad yesterday and he'd like to meet you. He's likely to tell you to call him granddad, you know."

Harry smiled. It felt good to have a family. So he nodded and said:

"Then I'd like to come with you. Thank you!"

"You're going to like it there, it's a nice place. Though it's definitely nicer in the summer, but you will probably see a lot of it, either my parent's place or Remus' father's place, as we will have to look for our own first. It seems a waste of money though, as both places are huge! You'll get your own room at both of them… and you'll need to tell your aunt and uncle that you won't be coming back."

"Oh, that'll be a pleasure! I'll send Hedwig, then they get angry. Hedwig is clever enough not to get hit by them."

"Who's Hedwig?" Sirius asked.

"My snowy owl. Hagrid gave her to me to my birthday, when we went shopping for the school supplies. She's really great!"

"That she is! Very dignified," Ron confirmed.

"She has style, Ron," Hermione corrected.

"You could also name it style, of course. Sometimes she's downright haughty," Ron insisted.

Sirius laughed.

"Oh, good, then send them a letter. We'll have to go to them once more and talk to them, though. Even if they won't want to. But you don't need to come with us then, no worries. We'll leave here tomorrow at ten, so you'd best meet us down in the entrance hall, okay?"

"Okay. I'll be there."

---

Four owls were expecting Remus when they got back to his rooms. They were patiently waiting by the window and held several packages. When Remus took them in he noticed they all came from his father. He had not only sent the box Remus had mentioned, but also a selection of Sirius' clothes, especially some warm things. Sirius was almost moved to tears.

"You know I always thought you have your consideration from your father, love! I'm so glad for this!"

There were several pairs of trousers, shirts and jumpers, his winter cloak, two sets of robes and even some pyjamas. Remus had taken hold of the small box. It contained things like Sirius' Gringotts key, Remus' ring, some other jewellery. Remus put the box down on his nightstand in the bedroom and waited for Sirius to get dressed into a pair of black jeans, a shirt and a jumper. Everything was too wide, even though Sirius had always been slim. A wave of Remus' wand took care of that.

"Well, I will need a couple of new things, belts, socks, shoes and boots, more underwear and some new robes."

"You have all the time in the world to go shopping soon, love," Remus told him.

"I'm not so sure I'm going to venture out a lot in the next few weeks! My face will be all over the bloody Daily Prophet and they're going to tear me apart if I show it on the streets…"

"You'll just have to sit the first angry tides out."

"That's what I plan to do. I could assist you… that would help time to pass faster."

-

"How do we get there, Sirius? And where is it?" Harry asked the next morning.

"We will floo from the Three Broomsticks. It's on the south coast, a bit to the west of Plymouth," Sirius explained.

"Isn't that a very long way to floo?"

"It will take you about two or three minutes. I could apparate you, but I don't dare to right now. So we'll both use the floo, Remus will probably prefer to apparate."

They all donned their warm cloaks. Sirius wore a blue winter robe over black trousers and a white shirt. Harry wondered, from where he had the clothes, but on the way to Hogsmeade Sirius explained:

"Remus' Dad sent me some of my clothes! Isn't that just darling? I'm so glad for them, I really had nothing left and I started to feel stupid wearing an old set of school robes."

"This looks great on you! Compared to that lovely poster of yours…"

"They didn't quite catch my best side, now did they?" Sirius tried to joke.

"I mean you're really looking good."

Sirius ruffled Harry's hair and smiled.

"I know what you mean. You don't only look like your Dad, you make the same kind of awkward compliments, you know!"

Harry looked up to Sirius and said:

"I know as good as nothing about my Dad, Sirius."

"I'll tell you lots of stories, that's all I can do. And there should be some photo albums left somewhere. Just believe me when I tell you that your Dad and your Mum were some of the most wonderful people anyone could know. I loved James like the brother I never had. We were practically brothers, at least in spirit. We looked quite alike, too, apart from James' glasses he had brown eyes whereas mine are blue. But we were of about the same height and same build. He was a bit more level headed than I though."

Remus snorted.

"By about half an inch," he commented.

"But fact remains, he was. He would listen to reason for once in a while. That means he sometimes listened to Remus, who was our voice of reason. I hardly ever did. To send Remus a letter and not go after Pettigrew on my own this time was probably the most reasonable thing I ever did in my life," Sirius admitted.

"How did you do that, Sirius? Did you have anything like parchment and quill with you?"

"No, I didn't. But when we left school, we buried our first wands, one set of robes each and some other stuff that was significant to us somewhere near the shack, and I needed to get there to retrieve my wand. That's why I have one right now. It was the one I got when I came to school. Still works just fine. Once I had that I could transfigure some things, like a bird's feather into a quill and water into ink. There was a bit of parchment in the box, must have been from Remus. But I first snooped around a bit and then I saw Remus. He must have remembered the secret stash as well as I did and if he were to go and look there he'd have my scent in a second and he'd find me. So I thought it better to be first and wrote the letter. I'm more than glad I did it this way. – See, the Dementors are already gone!"

Sirius was quite relieved about that fact. They passed the gates to Hogwarts and walked the half hour to Hogsmeade. That reminded Harry, that he still wasn't allowed to go there. He turned to Sirius to ask him about it, but Sirius grinned and said:

"It's already been taken care of, Harry, Professor McGonagall accepted my permission slip for your Hogsmeade weekends. You'll be able to go with your friends next time."

Harry pounced Sirius and hugged him for the first time. Sirius held him tightly and said:

"It's okay, Harry, from now on you'll get what you should have had all your life. Giving you permission to spend a little money in Hogsmeade is really the most normal thing. What happened that your aunt and uncle didn't sign the form?"

"It had to do with my school, so it was freak and abnormal and they hate everything to do with magic."

"Yes, I remember Petunia to be that way. Your Mum despised them, she'd never wanted you to go there. But I can understand why Albus placed you there, Harry, there were still enough Death Eaters around who could have tried to kill you in revenge for taking care of Voldemort. You were protected by more than wards there. There's some very old magic that only works when you are with a blood relative."

"I see. I won't have that when I come live with you, is that what you're trying to tell me?"

"Yes, that's it. On the other hand you'll have us to look after you and we're not the weakest wizards, believe me. I was an Auror before I was imprisoned. My parents or Remus' Dad are just as powerful. – There! We're getting to the village now. Remus – the glamour?"

"Coming!"

Remus put a glamour over Sirius, so he wouldn't be recognized and he explained to Harry:

"He can't go through floo as Padfoot, so we need to change him a bit, so people won't recognise him and call the Aurors. It will only be out publicly later today that he's innocent and that his name has been cleared."

A short while later they stood at the public fireplace in the Three Broomsticks. Sirius went first, then Remus gave Harry the floo powder and said:

"You'll have to say 'Black Manor', okay?"

"Okay."

Harry took off his glasses and stuffed them safely away, then he threw the powder into the fire, stepped in and said:

"Black Manor!"

After a whirlwind trip down south he finally fell a bit unceremoniously out of the Blacks' fireplace. There was a faint pop and Remus landed next to him. He helped Harry up and brushed a bit of soot from his cloak.

Sirius had already given his parents a first hug. They were both crying of joy and couldn't stop looking at him.

"Gosh, Sirius, you're but skin and bones. Did they feed you nothing there?" his mother asked.

"They did, but you couldn't exactly call it food. Don't know what it was, really…" Sirius muttered.

"Well, I hope you'll get a better look after a few square meals," Adara said.

"I'm in Poppy Pomfrey's able care, Mum…" Sirius replied.

"Then I know you'll get better soon. She knows her trade. – Hello, Remus, my son, how are you doing? I hear you have gotten a teacher's job now?"

"Hello, Mum. Yes, I have, and I'm very happy at it. It was good to come back to Hogwarts."

Sirius quickly led his mother away a bit to explain to her that Harry didn't know about the pair of them yet. She looked at him and said sternly:

"You can't hide this from him if you want to take him in, Sirius!"

"Well, he already knows we're going to live together. But he's only thirteen, Mum. I don't know if I should already talk to him about that and Remus was just as unsure."

"You should, Sirius."

"Okay, I will. Now come and let me introduce you properly."

Sirius pulled Adara back to the others and said:

"Well, Mum, and this is Harry. He's thirteen now."

"Hello Harry, I'm pleased to meet you."

"Hello, Mrs Black. I'm pleased to meet you, too."

"So, how do you like Hogwarts?"

"I love it! It's more my home than my aunt and uncle's ever was. I'm glad I'll be going to live with Sirius and Remus now."

"They will spoil you rotten, I'm sure," Adara smiled.

"Oh, we'll be strict enough, Mum. But I think he didn't have it easy so far, so anything will be better, eh, Harry?" Sirius butted in.

"Definitely," Harry confirmed.

They all proceeded to sit at a beautifully laid table for a scrumptious lunch. Neither Sirius nor Harry needed to be urged to have second helpings. All during the meal they kept talking. Sirius' parents didn't question him about Azkaban a lot, they could easily sense how difficult it was for him to speak about his experiences there, so they asked about the questioning on Friday, how he escaped and he did tell them a bit about how he was able to survive inside the prison. And what finally drove him to escape.

They ate at a round table, sized to seat the five persons comfortably. Duncan sat down, waving at Remus to take the seat next to him, followed by Sirius, his wife and Harry sat between him and Adara.

During the meal, Remus leaned over and asked Duncan:

"Dad, there's something I'd like to ask your help for. Could you make it possible to be at Sirius' side as often as possible in the next few weeks? We're expecting a lot of publicity, and he'll be exposed to lots of people for sure. And he won't be able to hide in Hogwarts forever. I can't get away during the week, so you'd be the best to help him along. He's still so hurt and for twelve years he had no company except for himself and Dementors. He'll really have a hard time until the storm calms down a bit."

"I've been thinking about that. When will they announce it publicly?"

"Two o'clock news should be the first time…"

"That's in an hour. We'll have to see how people react to this."

Shortly before the time Duncan turned the WWN on. Of course the first headline presented to the public was the news of Sirius' innocence.

"Sirius Black has been acquitted from his charges for murdering twelve Muggles and a wizard on November 1st, 1981. The Ministry has handed out this statement as of this morning, to be broadcast today. According to the Ministry communiqué, new evidence had been found to prove that Sirius Black was innocent. He had in fact been framed by the wizard he was said to have killed in the process. During the questioning of Sirius Black under Veritaserum, he mentioned that Cornelius Fudge had used the Cruciatus curse on him. This has been confirmed by a further communiqué from the Ministry, informing about the reason for Fudge's arrest. Cornelius Fudge had not been authorised to use any Unforgivable Curses. Even the authorised Aurors were strictly forbidden to use Cruciatus.

So far, there has been no public statement by Sirius Black himself. He will be in negotiations for a compensation from the Ministry for the 11 ½ years served in Azkaban. No amount had yet been mentioned."

Sirius sighed. This would cause a landslide, he was sure. And, not surprising, there were the first owls arriving already during the afternoon. One was from Ashley Grover, congratulating him for his acquittal and offering a date on the following Wednesday to clear the remaining questions. Then there was one from Arthur Weasley in his new function as Interim Minister, also starting by his congratulations and by inviting him for the following day, first for a conversation with himself, then for a public statement to the press, to be held at the Ministry. The owl waited for a reply, so Sirius scribbled a hasty acceptance and sent it on its way. The other two owls were from old school friends, sent to Sirius' parents to pass on to Sirius, should he be in contact with them.

But that was only the start. Soon there were owls from the Daily Prophet and from Witch Weekly, closely followed by the editor of a publishing house who offered an enormous amount of money for a written report about his life in Azkaban and of course his escape, and several companies who wanted him to either work for them or to do commercials for them. Sirius shook his head at most of them. He sent negative replies to all of them, because it was clearly noticeable that they only wanted to exploit his status as infamous ex-convict.

Out of practicality, Adara asked Sirius to stay at the Manor for the night, and he gladly accepted.

"Thanks, Mum. Would you and Dad be ready to come with me tomorrow?"

"Yes, I will do that, Sirius. This is surely going to be very hard on you, so you shouldn't be alone. We'll be with you!"

"Thanks, Dad! I have no idea what to expect there."

"Lots of uproar in any case. And uncomfortable questions."

Remus turned to him and asked in a low voice:

"Will you be alright, all alone tonight, love?"

"I don't know, Moony, but I will have to be there at 9.30, might be easier to go from here than Hogwarts."

"You have to know. It's certainly less complicated than to pass all the wards on Hogwarts. It's just because I can't stay with you, I have to bring Harry back."

"I'll come back tomorrow after that press conference is through, Remus."

"Right now I'm really not afraid of losing you again," Remus smiled.

Harry watched their quiet conversation for a moment, then thought about what the Weasley twins had suspected. He resolved to ask Remus when they walked back to the castle later on. Remus looked at the time and excused himself and Harry.

"I think, Harry and I had better get on the way now. We want to be back at the school for dinner," he said.

"That's fine, Remus, but I hope we'll see you again soon. How about during the Christmas break?"

"Only after the Christmas day I'm afraid. Full moon falls on Christmas Eve," Remus remarked.

"That's still fine with us, Remus. You need to rest before you come, in any case," Adara said.

He smiled at her. She had been the first of their parents to learn about the relationship between he and Sirius. She had also been one of only four persons other than the Marauders themselves who knew about them being Animagi. And she had been informed of Remus' lycanthropy early on. Harry guessed she had to know about Remus being a werewolf, as he casually mentioned the full moon.

Duncan and Adara fussed about Harry when saying goodbye, so Remus and Sirius were able to steal a kiss without Harry noticing. Then Remus sent Harry on through the Floo back to the Three Broomsticks. He apparated there and was already waiting for his young protégé when he arrived. Harry smiled and they walked up to the castle together. He kept thinking about how to ask his teacher whether he had a loving relationship with his other guardian, but finally just asked:

"Remus, may I ask you something?"

"Sure. What do you want to know, Harry?"

"You and Sirius. Are you in love with each other?"

Remus blushed, but decided that a direct question like this deserved a direct answer and he was not going to lie.

"Yes, Harry, we are. We have been since our own school days, in fact."

"Oh. That seems like a long time…"

"It was much too short, really. I mean we barely had a few years after we left school and – well, that night."

"It must be nice to be together again…"

"Yes, Harry, it's wonderful! I'm glad you asked and I'm glad I could tell you. I hope you're not uncomfortable with it."

"Why should I?"

"Well, there are still a lot of people who have issues when it comes to homosexuality, you know."

"Oh, because of that, you mean. I just happen to think that Uncle Vernon always gets angry when someone or something brings that subject up and calls them 'bloody poofs' and then I usually get the opinion, if he thinks it's a bad thing then it must in truth be okay. Because he has this idea of normality, you know, and everything that differs from his normality is put down. Like my magic."

Remus shrugged.

"You can't change him. He's got this view and he'll surely keep it. I remember that Lily implored us not to be too obvious at the wedding, but it was her wedding and we told her that it was not important what they felt. Only what she felt. And it was a wizarding wedding after all. They had to put up with it, though they left as soon as they could without being rude. There's a lot less homophobia in the wizarding world. Some will probably question Sirius about it, but there won't be an extra amount of remarks. Most will remain indifferent. I'd be a lot more resented because I'm a werewolf than gay."

"Did you always know you're gay?"

"No, I didn't – during puberty I went through the normal stages of recognition and denial and finally acceptance. Wasn't easy, but then it wasn't easy for Sirius either. And finally it wasn't easy to admit we'd both fallen for our best friend. And I was lucky, as my father was never uncomfortable with it and soothed my nerves a lot. – But tell me about yourself; do you have a little crush on anyone?"

Now it was Harry's turn to blush. He looked up at Remus and said:

"Well, I don't know yet. I may have. But I haven't figured it out yet."

"You don't need to say anything. Only when you find out, don't hesitate. It's so nice to feel, give and get love! And as I understood you weren't exactly smothered in love since your parents died."

"To say that would be an understatement."

And the rest of the way back to the school Remus spent with getting some of the stories out of Harry of just how little love he received on Privet Drive. Once they were back at Hogwarts they went directly to the Great Hall, where they split up when Harry joined his friends at the Gryffindor table and Remus moved on to the teacher's table.

Dumbledore spoke to him:

"Hello, Remus! Did you have a nice day?"

"It was very nice, thank you, Albus. Sirius decided to spend the night at the Manor, because Arthur Weasley has asked him to the Ministry tomorrow. There will be a press conference."

"I see. That's fine then. How did he react to the announcement?"

"Took it quite well, I think. Though I'm a bit worried about him being alone tonight."

"Nightmares?"

"At least when he's alone. He has only spent about two or three nights in his human form while on the run. In dog form he's less prone to nightmares."

"Oh dear! It will be agony. – When is he supposed to meet Arthur tomorrow?"

"At 9.30."

"I wonder, if I should go and be there with him."

"Yes, that's a good idea. Though Duncan and Adara will accompany him. But I think it's an excellent idea, if you would consider it. I'm sure he could use your support. I don't want to cancel more classes, so I have to stay behind."

-

Sirius and his parents caught up with their lives during the evening. Sirius was very glad to know they still supported and loved him. Duncan waved it away and explained:

"I don't know if Remus has told you about his attempts of getting a visitor's permit to see you at Azkaban. We tried ourselves, we never heard one word of your side, so we always thought something must be fishy, but we were always denied any information, any view into the files and of course we were never granted a visit either. The ministry also extinguished any kind of evidence that might have helped you, well, that's at least what I suspected, but I'm quite sure it was the case, since shortly after your arrest Crouch was pushed out of the MLE to the Department of International Cooperation and Fudge became Minister. And since he's now being impeached because he used Cruciatus on you, it all becomes even more fishy. And then there was the wrath of Pettigrew's mother who never let one chance pass to tell us how she had always thought you had murderer potential…"

"…oh yes, I do wonder, what dear Agnes has to say now – when it turns out that it was her precious little boy who killed the Muggles. And who knows who and what else in his time as a Death Eater. She probably can't have her nose in the air so high anymore," Adara chipped in.

Sirius grinned.

"And naturally there was a landslide of hate mail that reached us. We just remained stoic and destroyed it all."

"What about your company? Did you suffer from it?" The grin vanished from Sirius' face immediately.

"For about two years, yes. But then it got better again, and now it's back to normal. People will always have to buy clothes and all of our branches are long back to good business rates. We even opened a new one in Sydney half a year ago."

"I'm glad for that, Dad! I'm sorry to have caused all of this. Had I not gone after Peter alone it probably wouldn't have happened."

"You were always impulsive, son, and I know from where you have it – it's in the family. We had enough reserves to make it through the hard times and then it got back better than before. So no hard feelings on my part. Adara had to close her shop for a while, but she's back doing what she loves most again. And she's doing quite well."

"That's good to hear, Mum. And I'm so glad I had the good sense to write to Remus when I did. I would have killed Peter in cold blood! He willingly doomed me to this fate and what's worse, he doomed James and Lily and their small son! Not to speak of the misery Remus went through. It was probably for the best that I didn't even have to face him after they caught him."

"To think he was in the Weasley family all these years! What impudence!" Adara said.

"I'm still in shock about that, Mum. I promised Ron a new pet though. After all, the rat was his pet for more than two years and Harry told me he carried it around almost everywhere. So I'll have to go and get him an owl for Christmas."

Then they talked about the reason why Fudge had been arrested. Duncan brought Sirius up to speed what had been going on in the Ministry after he was shipped to Azkaban. Sirius knew a few things, but of course he had been mostly cut off from news and was only rarely able to get hold of a newspaper. So Duncan told him that after his arrest, Crouch's reputation started to go somewhat downhill.

"I thought so when they brought his son in. He was put into a cell just a few cells down from mine. And I saw them coming in to see him when he died. His mother was close to being dead herself."

"She actually died just a short time later. Small private funeral, I heard. Then Crouch deteriorated somewhat and before old Minister Kelsey retired, he was made Head of the Department of International Cooperation. And he was soon out for the race to become the new Minister. Fudge had by then become Head of the Department of Magical Catastrophes and was the cleverer politician, so when Dumbledore declined he got the job. There was no really good candidate anyway."

"What a lousy choice he was, though…"

"Well, if people would have known him to have used Cruciatus when he was neither an Auror nor authorised to even use Imperius, they certainly wouldn't have chosen him. But no one knew."

"Very convenient for him. No one knew what happened before he was on the scene and no one could know what he had done to me. I was out of my mind, Dad. I might have well done the deed, you know. But if anyone would only have taken the time to check my wand for my last spell, they would have known. And if anyone would have checked my arm they would have known, too. There's no way to hide that mark. And Voldemort would not have anyone in his ranks without it."

"What mark?" Adara asked, confused.

"Do you mean to tell me that you don't know that all Death Eaters have the Dark Mark burnt into them?" Sirius asked back.

"I have no idea. I've never seen anyone mention a mark…" she said.

"Fudge again! That bumbling idiot is probably closer to the Death Eaters than he ever was to the Light Side. – Voldemort brands every Death Eater with his mark: a skull with the head of a snake protruding out of it."

"You mean the sign they put hovering over a place where they killed people?" Duncan asked.

"Yes, precisely."

"And Peter had this mark?" Adara asked.

"He sure did."

"Oh my. Do you know what happens to him now?"

"Not yet. He'll be tried. But he won't get off easier than I did. I suppose it's going to be a life sentence to Azkaban. They'll need to cast a hold Animagus spell over him and will probably have to redo it every week or so."

At one point in the evening they were interrupted by a call through the Floo. It was Remus.

"Hello, love! Miss me already?"

"You know that! I just thought I should tell you: on the way back to Hogwarts, Harry asked me whether we are involved…"

"Oh – he caught on damn quickly!"

Remus grinned.

"His parent's son, love, couldn't say if that was more his Dad or more his Mum. Anyway, I told him, of course. He asked a straight forward question, it would have been silly and wrong to deny it."

"You did the right thing, sweetheart. – How did he take it?"

"No problem. Would you believe that he thinks it must be okay, because Vernon thinks it is awful?"

Sirius laughed.

"That sounds like Harry! And it does sound like James, doesn't it? I'm glad he knows already, Remus."

"Yes, me too. I am glad he asked, too, I hated the idea of having to sit him down and explain… and then I have something else. Albus will come down to the Ministry tomorrow to give you some support, too."

"Thanks, love. That will be highly appreciated. I may be okay speaking to you all, you mean something to me, but I'm quite surely going to be tongue-tied tomorrow in front of all of these strangers."

"I thought so. I'll be with you in my thoughts, love."

"Thank you."

After the call Sirius and his parents started to talk about what they would be saying the next day at the press conference. Sirius feared the public eye. After all the years of being locked away and his status as an infamous killer and supposed right hand of Voldemort he wasn't looking forward to the kind of questions that awaited him. He knew well that the journalists weren't going to be easy with him.

"If I were you, I'd strictly refuse any questions regarding your life in Azkaban. You can state that the experience you made in there is not something you wish to share. And if they should keep asking you can always just say no comment," said Duncan.

"That's for sure. I won't say anything about that part…"

Duncan coached his son for another two hours, then they decided to call it a night and go to bed. Sirius found his old room untouched. One of the house-elves had made his bed and he quickly undressed, got into bed and pulled up the blankets. He missed Remus already. Sleep didn't come easy and when it came, it came with the usual amount of nightmares. Sirius transformed and Padfoot pushed away the blankets, curled into a ball and slept.

Adara went to wake him up early in the morning. When she saw the huge black dog on the bed her heart became heavy. She could easily guess why he had transformed. So she sat on the edge of the bed, before he could transform back and stroked the dog over his back, caressed the muzzle and scratched him behind the ears. Sirius awoke with a little start, but her scent was right, so he just whined.

"Good morning, love. Time to get up. Want me to leave?"

He nodded.

"Come down for breakfast, when you're ready. Your bath has been equipped with everything you need. And there are still lots of your clothes in the wardrobe. Best put on a set of proper business robes…"

Sirius licked his mother's hand, then she got up with one last stroke across his back and left the room. Sirius transformed and went to the bathroom to take a shower and brush his teeth. When he came back he perused his wardrobe. He got some boxers and socks out of a drawer, a t-shirt, a pair of black trousers and a set of black business robes. Everything looked like the day he left. He found some black shoes, which were clean and polished as if the house-elf had done it the night before. When he was dressed, he brushed his hair and picked up his wand to quickly shave and adjust the size of his clothes. Then he went down to the smaller breakfast room, where he met both his parents.

"Good morning," he said fairly cheerfully and kissed his mother.

"Good morning, dear," said Adara.

"Sorry for throwing you out, but I didn't have a stitch of clothing on my body when I transformed, Mum," Sirius apologised.

She laughed, but then stopped quickly and said:

"Why did you sleep as a dog, Sirius?"

"Nightmares," he explained.

"I thought so, but I wanted to hear you saying it. This will only help you temporarily, Sirius. You will need to work it out."

"I know, Mum. It's been better the two nights I slept next to Remus. I was able to sleep through the nightmares. But I needed my wits today, so I didn't feel like fighting with insomnia and the dreams."

"Okay, I'm fine with that."

Another few dozen owls had found their way to the Manor. Sirius just dropped all the letters on the breakfast table and left them there. He was in no mood to read them yet. He took his time to eat the hearty breakfast he had been served and then left with his parents to set out to the public for the first time since his imprisonment. Sirius felt like walking on thin ice. They apparated to the reception area of the Ministry, where they were greeted by Arthur Weasley's secretary who guided them up to the Minister's office. Sirius didn't know Arthur personally. He had met Bill and Charlie, when they had started Hogwarts. Sirius himself had been in fifth year when Bill had been in his first.

When they arrived at the Minister's antechamber, they were awaited by Albus Dumbledore who had come down from Hogwarts. He greeted Duncan and Adara warmly and asked:

"How delightful to see you both! How are you these days?"

"Hello, Albus! It's good to see you, too. We're fine and you can imagine that we've been very, very happy to hear our son being cleared," said Adara.

"Yes, I can. It's wonderful, and I'm really happy about the development of things. Sirius was always such a bright boy and he may have been a menace for many of my fellow teachers, but believe me, I've always been especially fond of him."

Duncan laughed. He didn't need to be reminded of all the owls they had received from Hogwarts.

"In fact, you and Arthur have some shared experience, he has twin sons at Hogwarts who are doing their utmost to step into Sirius' and James' shoes. I think they already met…"

Sirius grinned, too. He knew his parents had taken all the owls with sighs, but they had never tried to change him. He was an excellent student beyond his antics and his marks were consistently high, so they just accepted his pranks as part of his personality. They reprimanded him of course, but otherwise rarely punished him.

Arthur came out of his office to see them inside. He shook hands with them all and smiled. After Albus introduced them, they sat down around a coffee table on a few armchairs and a sofa.

"I've already met a few of your sons and your daughter, Mr Weasley. They are wonderful young people," said Sirius to start a conversation.

"Thank you, Mr Black. I would have thought that some of them use their time at Hogwarts not entirely for studying…"

"They are having a bit of fun beside the learning. I've seen them play Quidditch. I was a beater on the Gryffindor team myself, so it was nice to watch them."

"Yes, I've actually heard a few stories about you, Mr Black. My oldest sons were full of stories about you and James Potter."

"Bill and Charlie, right?"

"Yes, that's them. I wanted to talk to you personally, because I felt the need to apologise that we never, ever thought anything strange about the rat that was our pet for so long. It should have come to our mind that it was living strangely long. We never even lost a thought about that. When Percy was made a prefect the same year Ron started school we decided to give Percy his own owl and Ron got the rat as a pet. We might have thought, Percy had gotten a new rat in the meantime and the old one had died at some time. But there was never anything to indicate it was anything but a normal rat."

"It's certainly not your fault, Minister. I think, Ron was very upset, that his rat had turned out to be Peter Pettigrew, but I promised him an owl for Christmas. After all it's a bit my fault he's out of a pet."

"Still. We should have noticed something was odd."

"Don't worry, that's just how perfect the Animagus transformation is. One does become the animal and one mostly behaves like the animal one becomes."

"How does this feel? I find this fascinating," Arthur said.

"I find it hard to describe. I can still think human thoughts in my dog form, but I have much simpler emotions. And sometimes the 'dog thoughts' come forth and chasing a butterfly or following an interesting scent becomes much more important than thinking about human problems. It's become something of a way to escape for me."

Arthur nodded. He started to include the others into the conversation and finally picked up the folder he had in front of himself on the table. He handed it over to Sirius and said:

"This contains all of your papers, the adoption forms for your guardianship over Harry, your renewed apparition license and your Animagus registration forms. You can send the registration forms directly to the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. That's where this information will be stored. The adoption form you can hand in to Ashley Grover. I understand you'll be meeting with him on Wednesday?"

"Yes, I will. Thank you, Minister."

"Oh, and please call me Arthur! And Harry will, of course always remain to be a part of our family and highly welcome at the Burrow if you will allow him to visit."

"Thank you, Arthur, please call me Sirius. Of course he'll come to see you, he and Ron are best friends after all, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are."

"Remus and I don't know yet, if we will take residence in either of our parents' houses or get our own. But wherever it may be, your children will be just as welcome there."

After a good hour of talking they moved on to the auditorium where the press conference was held. Adara took her son's hand in hers when they saw the mass of reporters. He held his breath.

"Oh Merlin, I'm scared, Mum," he whispered.

"I know, but just remain as calm as you can, dear, take your time to reply to a question and don't hesitate to tell them off if they try to rush you or if they ask something you don't want to answer."

He nodded. They sat down on several chairs behind a long table and Arthur stood to make a short, but official statement:

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

As the Interim Minister of Magic, I'm here to give you the official Ministry position on the subject of the pardon for Mr Sirius Black.

After the capture of Peter Pettigrew we learned that the true murderer of the incident on November 1st 1981 was not Sirius Black but Peter Pettigrew himself. It didn't take more than the questioning of both of them to find out the truth. I have been involved personally, in as far as the Animagus form of Peter Pettigrew was a rat and he had lived in my very household as a pet for two of my sons for the time between winter 1982 until a few days ago. His ability to transform into the rat had made his escape possible. Sirius Black was the only one who knew about this fact. Several days before the Fidelius charm was to be cast he had renounced of becoming James and Lily Potter's secret keeper and they switched to Peter Pettigrew, not knowing that Pettigrew was already a Death Eater. We have now established all of these facts. As of this moment, Sirius Black is free. He has received all his documents a few moments ago. If you would like to direct your questions to him, I think he is ready to reply to them."

The reporters started to fire questions at them. Sirius replied slowly, thinking before talking and formulating his answers in short phrases. It seemed to him that there were hundreds of cameras and he was almost drowned in the light of their flashes.

"How was your life in Azkaban?" one reporter asked. Or maybe the question came from half a dozen of them.

"I'm sorry, but I am absolutely unwilling to speak about this subject," Sirius replied vehemently.

"How did you feel the night the Potters had died?" another asked.

Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Well, how would you feel, if you'd have to look at the lifeless bodies of your best and closest friends? I was out of my mind."

"Is it really true you were put under Cruciatus by a Ministry employee?"

"Yes."

"Would you care to elaborate?"

"He first tried to retain me through the Imperius curse. As an Auror I am well trained to throw that one off, so he tried it with Cruciatus. This in spite of the fact that I was in no state to go anywhere, let alone apparate away."

"Is it true that one of the Aurors who arrested you was your sister?"

"Yes."

"Have you seen her again since then?"

"No. She's currently abroad."

"How will you approach her when you meet her again?"

"My sister did her duty as an Auror. I would not have done anything different if I had to arrest her. I don't know how we will get along when we meet. It depends on her acceptance of my clearance."

"We heard you wrote a letter to someone in Hogwarts that Pettigrew was alive and at the school. Who was that?"

Sirius looked at Albus. He did not want to have Remus pulled into the press hassle, where the danger of exposing him as a werewolf would be too great, so Albus stepped up and said:

"That was me. One of our teachers talked to the boy who owned the rat and brought them to me. Only after that we contacted Sirius who had stayed in the Forbidden Forest."

"What are you going to do now, Mr Black?"

"I don't know yet. I will need some time to get used to being free, I guess," Sirius replied.

"How much will you ask from the Ministry as a compensation?"

"I have not decided yet."

The questions went on and on and two hours later Sirius felt like a wet towel. Many of the questions were also directed at his parents, some at Dumbledore. Sirius finally said he'd only accept one more question and one reporter asked:

"Where are you going to stay now, Mr Black?"

"That's not decided yet, either. I need to look for a house."

After that Sirius stood up and left the room. The others followed him and Arthur asked:

"Would you accept an invitation to lunch at the Leaky Cauldron? I have taken the liberty of reserving a private dining room."

"Yes, thank you, I accept," Sirius said and looked around at his parents. They nodded.

When they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, Molly was waiting for them already. Arthur kissed her lightly on the lips and then introduced his guests.

"Molly, you don't know Adara and Duncan Black yet, I believe?"

"No, not yet. I'm very pleased to meet you!"

Molly shook hands with the Blacks and then Arthur introduced Sirius, too.

"And this is Sirius. He will be Harry's guardian. Together with Remus Lupin."

"Pleased to meet you, too, Sirius. Please call me Molly."

"I'm happy to meet you, Molly. I've already heard some nice things about you from your children. And Harry. And Hermione."

While they placed themselves around the table, Molly explained:

"I took the liberty to order a menu. I hope this will meet your tastes. – So you've met my children, Sirius? I do hope they behaved properly."

"They did. I had nothing to complain, but then I may not really be the best to judge proper behaviour."

"Well, I think, I still remember how shocked I was when I read some of my oldest son's letters. He was following your antics quite intensively, you must know and reported many of them back to me. Totally innocently, of course."

Sirius blushed.

"Not that we did everything so your son had something to write home, Molly," he said with a lopsided grin.

"Oh, he certainly enjoyed himself. He's not the troublemaker in my family, not too much anyway…"

"I heard he was head boy?"

"Yes. I'm quite proud of him, really. Currently he's in Egypt, working as a curse breaker for Gringotts there."

"And I know who the troublemakers in your family are," Sirius said, laughing, "but they're fine boys, Molly, really! They will go their own way, but I'm not afraid for them. They also might become very successful in their chosen career, even if they do not look for a career at the Ministry."

Molly sighed.

"I certainly hope so. I know they are not evil or bad, but if only they'd take life a bit more serious."

"I think they take life and their jokes very serious."

Duncan laughed.

"That would be my son who can see something like that. Molly, if you get as many owls for your twins as we got for Sirius' antics then you really get many. I'd say an owl per week was about average," said Adara.

Molly's eyes went big.

"Sirius! How did you manage school?"

"Oh, I studied. I just didn't study out in the open. Couldn't lose my reputation, now could I? So I usually studied in the dorm. James, Peter and Remus knew that I worked just as hard as they did. I just liked to have my fun."

"Then you are one amazing person!"

"Thank you. Actually, I think, I was blessed. My parents passed me the brain to keep information fairly easily and I was curious. Our jokes and pranks often demanded a bit of research, so we learned something out of them, too. I was good at Potions and I was interested in Muggle chemistry, so sometimes I combined the two to experiment a bit. It was learning with a fun outcome. And of course we had Remus, the most devious prankster possible."

"I always thought there was more to this little fellow than he let on," said Albus.

Sirius grinned.

"He is an expert in hiding as you know. He always found ways not to be detected."

"I will have to tease him with this knowledge," Albus smiled.

"Remus? Is that Remus Lupin, your Defence against the Dark Arts teacher?" asked Molly.

"Yes, Molly, that's him. He's really an excellent teacher and as far as I know even the Slytherin students like him. That's saying something," Albus confirmed.

"Yes, I'd agree on that one," Arthur said.

Molly turned to Sirius.

"So you and Remus Lupin are friends?"

"We're best friends and lovers."

"Oh. I take it that's not recent?"

"No, we've been together for a long time. Since fifth year at Hogwarts."

"That's nice. Now you're together again?"

"Yes."

"The few letters I get from my children are quite full of him. They really seem to like him."

"He's probably the best teacher we've had in this subject for the past 20 or so years, Molly. I have some wonderful teachers on the staff who work together very well, but for some reason I don't seem to be lucky with our Defence teachers. I do hope, Remus lasts. He's good. A gifted teacher who can pass the subject to his students. He's able to build weaker students up and gives them confidence. He's able to be demanding in a way that stronger students feel challenged and get an urge to meet the challenge," Albus told them.

"That is high praise, Albus," Arthur said.

"I know, but he deserves it. Remus is a very quiet and sometimes even shy person, but in front of children and in a classroom he grows a lot taller and stronger."

"Sirius, did I understand this right, that you will be Harry's guardian now? So he doesn't have to go back to these horrible Muggles?" Molly asked.

"Yes, that's right. Remus and I jointly."

"Do you already have plans for Christmas?"

"We'll stay at Hogwarts until the 26th December and then probably head to my parents."

"Could we invite you for New Year's Eve then?" Molly asked.

"I'll have to ask Remus, so, if you don't mind, I'll give you word in a few days, okay? We also want to include Remus' father in our plans, he's all alone."

"That's perfectly fine with me. An owl will do."

They talked through lunch and Molly and Arthur did their best to put Sirius at ease after the stressful morning. Duncan and Adara noticed, that they succeeded quite well in this task. Adara leaned close to her husband and whispered:

"Molly and Arthur must be wonderful parents, don't you think?"

"Yes, I think so, too. I'm very happy with Arthur being the Interim Minister, he'll do a great job."

Finally they parted ways. Albus returned to Hogwarts and Sirius went back home to his parents to pack a few more clothes and pick up the letters he had left on the breakfast table. He returned to Hogwarts just when the last classes were out and met Minerva on the way to Remus' rooms. She stopped him and said:

"You're bringing the mail system down here, Sirius! You'd better go and collect those letters in the teachers lounge! There are buckets full!"

"Oh god! I hate that!"

"I know you do, but you won't get around looking through that flood. Don't throw the negative ones away, we'd like to analyse the letters, so just put them aside, okay?"

"Minerva! What do you want with the stuff? I'd just as well throw them ALL away."

"I know, but that wouldn't be right."

So Sirius spent the evening sitting on the rug, leaning against Remus' legs, reading his letters, while Remus worked through a big pile of essays and tests. They were staying in the teacher's lounge and enjoyed the company of Filius Flitwick, Edith Sprout and Yolanda Hooch.

Over some of the letters Sirius just shook his head.

"What more than evidence do some people need? Listen to this, Remus: blah, blah, blah… you are a dark wizard in my opinion and you'll always be one. They should have put you straight back to Azkaban…"

"On the pile to the left, Siri, and forget about them. Actually we should even consider answering those letters…" said Remus calmly.

"Most of those here come anonymous. There are what? Eleven or so now? And only one of them has an address."

"This is really unbelievable. I really think those people need to get their priorities set straight," Yolanda remarked.

"Once opinionated, always opinionated, Yolanda. You can't change people's attitudes. I know, believe me!" Remus said.

"You would," she confirmed.

"Sometimes I manage to feed something into a mind that will help them to change their opinions, but it rarely happens," Remus added and returned to his essay.

After a while he asked Sirius:

"This is Hermione's werewolf essay. Do you want to read it?"

"How creepy is it?"

"Quite. Just had to get rid of the goose bumps on my arms," Remus tried to joke.

"Pass it on!"

Sirius read Hermione's essay first, before looking for Remus' mark. He was quite impressed.

"Did her work thoroughly, didn't she?"

"She always does. And in a very short time, too."

"You've given her a good mark, too…"

"Extra credit. Snape set them the essay when he took the class after my second full moon here. He hasn't offered to substitute anymore. But he probably gave them the essay in the hope that someone notices my symptoms. To his great dismay the Gryffindor third years really told him off and defended me."

Flitwick looked up.

"That would sound like him! I think he'd love to tell everyone about your lycanthropy, Remus," he said.

"He knows I'd leave if he does it."

"Well, there's nothing but hoping he keeps his mouth shut. I don't think we could get all the parents to agree to having you as a teacher, even if many wouldn't mind," Edith remarked.

"How does Dumbledore keep him quiet, anyway, Remus? Do you know?" Sirius asked.

"No idea. But I suppose with the small matter of him having been a Death Eater."

"Do the school governors know about it?" Sirius asked on.

"Yes. They checked my records at the Werewolf Registry and found that I'm clean. Then they demanded to know the security measures and that was it. They accepted me, since I already spent my seven school years here. Actually I was quite amazed, how easy they were. But Malfoy isn't among the bunch anymore, so Albus can handle them far easier."

"Malfoy? Lucius Malfoy? HE was a school governor?" Sirius asked.

"Oh yes. Thought he could influence Albus' work in his evil ways," Flitwick confirmed.

"This evil git? Oh my. But then we might do something about it, Remus. Out you to selected students maybe, so the reaction would be mellowed considerably, if Severus outs you. He shouldn't have that power over you, love."

"I'll think about it. He's getting bolder in any case. I have to learn to know my students a bit better to know who would be comfortable with it and keep the secret. I suppose, Hermione already guessed. She's very perceptive. I'll do some classes on werewolves – my way. Then I'll fairly soon see who can accept it."

"Meanwhile I can substitute for you so you'll get rest after the full moons. There's no hurry for me to look for paid work…"

"That's a good idea, I suppose you could suggest that to Albus."

Sirius yawned. He was through with most of the letters, but there were still more owls that rapped on the windows.

And they continued to swoop down on Hogwarts for several days. On Wednesday Sirius returned to the Ministry, his adoption forms for Grover filled out and signed, and the registration form for the Animagus registry, filled out and signed as well. He asked the witch at the reception, if she could forward it to the right office and she promised she would.

"Once I find out where it needs to be sent to…" she mumbled.

"All I know is it has to be in the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures…" Sirius offered.

"Oh, thanks, I'll send it there, they'll know where to stuff it."

"Could you kindly give Ashley Grover a call? I have an appointment with him."

"That would be on the third floor, along the corridor to the right, there's another small reception, please report there, Mr Black."

"Thank you."

Sirius went up and soon sat in Grover's spacious office. It was packed with folders and files about hanging cases.

"Good afternoon, Mr Black. Come in! Come in! – Cup of tea? "

"Yes, please – thank you."

Grover went to the door and opened it again.

"You're welcome," he said to Sirius, then: "Miranda, could you please have the house-elf bring tea?"

"Yes, sir! Just a minute!"

"Thank you!"

Grover cleared a corner of the coffee table and put down Sirius' folder.

"Well, let's get right to business. I suppose you got the papers through Arthur?"

"Yes, thank you, all is perfect. Here's our forms for the adoption. Harry wants to come live with us as soon as possible. He's really unwelcome at his Muggle relatives, so it's understandable."

"Good. – Ah, Sinni, thank you for the tea. Could you just put the tray down here on the table? Thank you! That will be all."

Grover poured a cup of tea for both and Sirius added sugar and a drop of cream. He handed Grover the forms.

"Very well. I'll have this processed immediately, won't take long, since it only needs my signature and a stamp from the Department of Youth. They're a subgroup of my department. – Now, on to the compensation…"

"Well, I thought I would have made about 23'000 Galleons a year being an Auror. That times eleven years and nine months for my imprisonment would be 271'000 Galleons. Plus some extra I rounded it to 300'000 Galleons."

Grover did swallow a little.

"Three yearly instalments of 100'000 Galleons okay?"

"Welcome."

"Well, it's a large sum, but considering that you're asking for only about one year's worth more for your salary I think it is reasonable. Pay rises and rank promotions included we'll add a fourth instalment of 50'000. I've got that noted down and you can expect the first instalment being transferred to your Gringotts account in the next days. Would you give me your number?"

"711."

"Fine. Noted that and will have this signed by Arthur today."

"Thank you, sir! For all of your un-bureaucratic help."

"It was a grave error of justice. I couldn't let this lie low. We'll remain in your debt, Mr Black, I'm well aware that no money will bring you back the twelve years you lost. And the horrors you went through."

"I'm still glad. That will be all, I suppose?"

"Yes, that's all. – Do you have any plans?"

"Sit out the storm of mail and then look for a house maybe, but I think I'll stay with my lover at Hogwarts most of the time, so maybe I look for something in Hogsmeade for the school term."

"Good luck then. You shouldn't have a problem of finding something around there."

Sirius returned to Hogwarts. He didn't have long to wait for Remus, who came to his rooms after his last class.

"How was it, love?" he asked immediately.

"I'll get 350'000 Galleons," Sirius said and grinned.

Remus gasped – then swallowed.

"That's a lot!"

"Well, if I had stayed on as an Auror, then I would have made about 270'000 in the time I was imprisoned. So it's already something the Ministry owed me. I added 30'000 and Grover offered an extra 50'000."

"Wow. – What now?"

"I was thinking – I might look for a really nice cottage in Hogsmeade… I don't know if I could stay here with you…"

"You'd be less confined in any case. And I could floo in from there. The fireplace in the teacher's lounge is open for limited connection. Or use a permanent Portkey."

"Then you'd move in with me if I found some nice little house?"

"Of course."

"I'll start looking for one soon. Just want to sit out the load of mail and wait until the public forgets me again."

"You'll remain famous, Siri. Nothing you can do about. You'll stay in the history book for being the first prisoner to ever get out of Azkaban for one. And you're a charismatic person, so you're not quickly forgotten."

Sirius started to look for the house. While he was busy looking at fitting objects, someone offered him a lot of land, slightly outside of Hogsmeade. He went to look at it and found it perfect.

"But how long will it take to get a house finished?"

"About a month. You need to have an architect first. Once you've decided what you want you can get it done quickly."

Sirius looked around.

"The setting would be perfect."

He bought the land. The seller gave him a few recommendations for architects and Sirius contacted some of them until he found one who seemed to meet his own tastes. He wanted a cottage style house with four bedrooms, two bathrooms on the upper floor and one on the ground floor, a fairly large living room and kitchen, a dining room, a study for Remus and a spare room for himself. And he needed a solid basement, just in case, and an attic, for good measure. Sirius knew how Remus was, he never threw anything away.

There was enough land to have a large garden, which they would enclose with a wall. The front yard would just get a fence, then a short path would lead to a front porch. In the back of the house, along the dining room, living room and study would be another porch, both of them covered, so they would have a balcony on the upper floor, and on both sides.

"Remus, it's going to be such a nice house! I've seen the finished plans today and the architect says they will have it done at the latest at the beginning of February."

"That sounds great, love! I'm really looking forward to it. What does Harry say?"

"He thinks it's great, too, because he'll have his own room and all. I'll have to take him shopping for his furniture," Sirius said.

"In the meantime, do you have an idea for a Christmas present for him?"

"Yes, I do. His broom was rather destroyed by the Whomping Willow, so I thought I'd make up for thirteen years of Christmas and birthday presents and buy him the newest top fancy broom. He's a seeker, so he needs a fast one. Who better than me to give him one, anyway?"

"Wow. That's a great idea. I'm sure he'll love that!" Remus said and whistled.

"He'll be out of his mind! I hope he hasn't gotten one yet."

"It's too cold and their next match is against Ravenclaw, some time in February, so I don't think you need to tell him. You might prevent it by telling him, that he should tell you if he intends to spend over a certain amount of Galleons."

"That's a splendid idea. I'll do just that. I'll bring it up when I show him the plans for the house tonight."

Sirius went up to the Gryffindor common room after dinner and charmed the Fat Lady to open the door for him. Sirius had the plans for the house under his arm and looked for Harry. He found him next to Hermione at their usual table.

"Hi!" he said.

"Oh, hi, Sirius! What's this?" Hermione gestured at the rolls of parchment.

"The plans for the new house. Want to see them?"

"Oh yes!" both exclaimed.

Sirius unrolled the plans on the table. They looked at them and saw the house drawn and the floor plans. Sirius pointed to one of the rooms to the back yard.

"This will be your room, Harry. And this one will be ours. These two will be guest rooms. I'll take you furniture shopping on one of your next Hogsmeade weekends, Harry."

"Wow. I can't believe it. I'm going to live with you for real now, am I?" Harry asked.

Sirius hugged him.

"Yes, Harry, now it's for real. You know that Remus and I are not going to let you down. You might not be so safe with us, but we'll be there for you and you'll have a lot more fun, that's for sure. And if we need security, you will be able to floo to Hogwarts. We've already arranged a limited access. The lot is already charmed to be unplottable, too. Remus is going to use a permanent Portkey, which will only work from our house to Hogwarts and you will be able to use the floo to Albus' office if need be."

"What's a Portkey?" Hermione asked.

"That is any object that is charmed to transport someone to a pre-defined area and at a pre-defined time. Permanent Portkeys are subject to Ministry regulations, we're currently getting the permission to create one for Remus. We'll either use a ring or a bracelet. Something that can be activated by a simple movement or spell. This will allow Remus to live with me outside of the castle."

"Then Snape should be happy, he won't have to be afraid of Remus anymore," Hermione said.

"So you know he's afraid of Remus?"

"I'm sure. In any case he loathes Remus."

"Oh, he does, that's for sure. So you guessed what Remus is?"

"Yes."

"And you're not afraid of him?"

"Oh no. Wherever he goes on the full moon nights, I didn't notice him so far, so I don't think I'll notice him, even though I know he's a werewolf."

"Good. – I'm very glad about that, because he really likes you, Hermione."

"I know. And he gave me top marks for my werewolf essay. We talked a bit about it."

"Does he know that you know? Well, he thinks you know, but does he know?"

"I didn't exactly tell him, but he might have guessed."

"Okay. I have become very careful about that. It's always Remus' secret to tell, so I never tell anyone out of my own will, even when I feel that the other person is not uncomfortable knowing. I would always ask his permission first. So if you get the opportunity to talk to him, just tell him you know, and that you're still comfortable. He hates scaring people."

"He's always so kind! It must be awful to have to gain other people's trust so hard!"

"It is, Hermione! It's something he's fought for his whole life and it has never paid off. He's perfectly happy now."

"No wonder. He's got you back and he's got the job and he likes his job," Hermione said with a grin.

"Spot on, everything. – Now, Harry, there's something I wanted to tell you still. Don't think I want to control you, and I know you're very reasonable, but if you plan on spending more than 50 Galleons on one single item, would you please tell me, before you get it?"

"I hardly ever spend more than a couple of Galleons, Siri."

"Okay. So if you do want to buy something bigger, you either tell me or Remus, then we're happy. And you don't have to pay for your school supplies and clothes anymore, that will be my job from now on."

"Okay, Sirius."

"Very well. So I'll let you work. What were you doing?"

"Some homework for Divination," Hermione said with a frown.

"Hated it, myself. Totally useless stuff, at least the way Trelawney teaches. I always thought she was a fraud!" Sirius said, much to Hermione's delight.

She threw a triumphant glance at Harry, who shrugged.

"What? I agreed with you, that she's probably a fraud," he said.

She grinned again. Sirius left them and returned to Remus who had finally worked through all of his essays and tests. And sighed.

"Finished that pile, just to get the next one tomorrow…"

"Poor sweetheart," Sirius consoled him.

"Well, your poor sweetheart could do with a nice tumble where usually no parchment would be found…"

"Are you suggesting we take a hop in the bed and enjoy a quick shag?" Sirius asked.

"No, I'm suggesting we take a hop in the bed and enjoy a nice long shag."

"Sometimes you can be awfully blunt, you know that?"

Remus grinned. And then teased:

"Well, there's no point in being subtle with you, you're too dense to catch subtlety. Therefore I'm going for blunt, otherwise…"

"…otherwise you talk for hours and we never get to bed," Sirius laughed.

He pulled Remus close for a kiss. Remus snuggled even closer and held Sirius around his waist. Sirius pushed forward with his tongue, to gently stroke over Remus' lips, then demanded entry into Remus' mouth, which was granted quickly. They never stopped kissing, but started pulling off each other's clothes. Sirius buried his hands into Remus' hair, and tickled him lightly behind the ear. Remus giggled into his mouth and then pulled free. He took Sirius by the hand and the two went into the bedroom, where Sirius found himself being tossed on the bed. Just a second later, Remus was all over him. Sirius purred.

"Mmm, that's how I really love you most, my sweet. With your mouth full of something me," he said.

"Get too much fabric in, if I do that now. It looks like we're slightly overdressed for that kind of fun…" Remus retorted.

"Well, you're so good at Charms, get these clothes off…" Sirius mumbled.

"Why always me?" Remus muttered.

He accioed his wand and used a disrobing charm. Their clothes vanished, rematerialised and were neatly folded on a chair. Remus looked very smug and Sirius was quite impressed.

"I knew you were good…" Sirius said.

He got no reply, as Remus was already buried in the crook of Sirius' neck and nibbled his way down Sirius' torso.

"Aww, that's just so good, love."

Remus just looked up for a moment, then moved down and licked Sirius' cock, which hardened fast. Then he looked at Sirius again and said:

"I want your cock inside of me! You have no idea, how I've been missing you, sweetheart."

"I'll do my best, love… don't know how long I'll be able to pleasure you."

"That doesn't matter. I want you to get trained again, and once you have to start again."

Sirius pulled Remus up and kissed him. Remus rolled off him and turned on his back. Sirius took over and ran his hands slowly over Remus' body. He kept kissing his lover and started sucking on his earlobes, then went on and kissed and nibbled on Remus' throat. Remus pulled him closer and wrapped one of his legs around Sirius, who slowly went down along Remus' body, untangling himself from the leg around his waist. Remus moaned softly and felt his nerves working overtime. Since they had come together again, Sirius had been most reluctant to be the dominant partner. Remus had been used to share everything equally with Sirius and he did like to just take sometimes, so now he felt really well, as Sirius closed his mouth over Remus' cock. He shivered in bliss, as Sirius started sucking, licking and nipping the hard flesh. With as much control as Remus could muster, he thrust into Siri's mouth. Both moaned. Sirius curled one hand around the base of Remus' cock, so he couldn't go in too deep. Siri's other hand reached down and caressed Remus' balls, then went beyond and finally reached the tight ring of muscles. He teased it lightly, then left it, to have Remus suck on his fingers. Once they were wet enough, he pushed them inside, slowly and carefully, preparing Remus.

"Siri! Come on in! Please!" Remus whined.

Sirius looked up, let go of Remus' cock and asked:

"Would you mind turning around?"

"Not at all…"

Remus turned and hoisted himself up on his knees. He pulled a pillow close and turned his head to the side, so he could still see what Sirius did. Sirius scooted close on his knees and positioned himself to enter Remus.

"Oh yes, Siri! Yes, come on, deeper!"

Sirius held Remus around his waist and pulled him up so he had Remus in his lap. It was easy to move now, Remus reached with one arm behind himself and held Sirius close. He rested his head on Sirius' shoulder. They soon found a rhythm and Sirius pumped Remus' cock while he thrust into his lover. With the other hand he still held Remus close and teased his nipples. He continued thrusting inside, increasing in speed as he reached his completion. Sirius bit down in Remus' shoulder, then came with a shudder. Remus didn't take much longer and both tumbled down on the bed. Sirius pulled Remus into his arms. Both were still breathing hard and catching their breath. Remus gasped for air and turned around in Sirius' arms, to be able to kiss him.

"So good, love…" he mumbled between kisses.

Sirius returned the kisses. Then they decided to call it an early night and pulled up the duvets. Remus extinguished the light with a flick of his hand and was fast asleep right after that.