Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing and I am making no profit.

Setting: This story starts a couple of weeks after the end of GoF, but after that goes AU.

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Chapter 10: Fight and Flight

It was Saturday morning and the commonroom was full of the usual suspects. Some did homework, some chatted, and some sat observing their best friend's son as he sat across the room thumbing through their photo albums.

When Harry had approached Sirius earlier that morning to ask if he had any photos of the Marauders, Sirius had happily handed him all the albums he could find in the dormitory, including those belonging to James, Remus and Peter. Sirius had wanted to go through them together, thinking they'd laugh about all the stupid things James had ever done, but Harry had wanted to view them alone. Maybe he'll want to look at them with James or Lily when they get back Sirius thought.

First thing that morning James had whisked Lily away to wherever it was he took her when he wanted 'romantic time'. It made Sirius want to gag. James must be the only seventeen year old alive to be turned on by the idea of settling down with a kid. Harry had woken after they'd gone and Lily had yet to meet him.

"Amazing, isn't it," said Remus. They were sitting together in the good chairs by the fireplace. "How'd'you reckon he got that scar?"

"Dunno," Sirius replied. "There's probably a good story behind it though. Why don't we ask him?" Remus scowled and Sirius laughed. "You are so easy."

Remus shook his head, presumably at Sirius's idiocy, and they went back to watching Harry who was now wearing the strangest look; as though he'd swallowed something bitter and now wanted to throw up. His eyes were fixed on a particular photograph and his hands were gripping the pages of the album a little too hard.

"We should see what's wrong," said Sirius, concerned. But before he'd taken two steps toward Harry he found himself distracted by Peter, who at that moment came stumbling through the portrait hole, dropping his books and potions equipment across the commonroom floor. There was general clapping and cheering from the Gryffindors as Peter blushed bright red and moved to collect his things. Sirius snorted at his friend's clumsiness and moved to help, but froze in his tracks when he caught sight of Harry.

The expressions warring on Harry's face as he watched Peter's progress - cool detachment, perverse satisfaction and something a little more frightening - held Sirius transfixed. Peter was looking around to see where his abacus had landed and spotted it by Harry's feet. He opened his mouth, presumably to ask Harry to pass it up to him, but stopped before the words came out. Something about Harry was warning him not to speak.

Sirius watched the scene unfold with the same kind of fascinated horror he sometimes felt when witnessing creatures from the Forbidden Forrest destroy one another. Peter's eyes were fixed firmly on Harry's as he slowly reached down to retrieve the abacus, like a rabbit fetching a carrot from under the nose of a potentially vicious wolf. With his attention on Harry's face though, Peter made the unfortunate mistake of brushing his hand against Harry's ankle. The immediate reaction was severe. Harry scrambled away, standing as he did, and pulled his wand on the smaller boy. The photo album from his lap fell awkwardly to the floor, the pages bending at all the wrong angles.

Peter squealed, dropped his books all over again, and threw his arms up in front of his face as though that would protect him from an unfriendly spell. With six years experience defending Peter from the bullies of Hogwarts, Sirius found himself responding to his friend's plight by reflex and within seconds both he and Remus were at Peter's side, wands out.

The commonroom fell silent as everyone turned to watch the impending fight and it occurred to Sirius that James would be horrified to see this: his three best friends ganging up on his son. A feeling of guilt began to creep up on him. Then he sensed someone approaching from behind him and all guilt was forgotten. "Stop right there, Fred!" he said.

"Lower your wand," said Fred, no more than three feet away.

Sirius didn't move. Harry was still staring at Peter as though he were something poisonous, and although Sirius knew he would never actually cast a spell on his best friend's son, he'd be damned if he'd let Harry threaten Peter. Harry would have to back down first.

"Lower it!" Fred shouted.

Harry started at the sound of Fred's voice and seemed to become aware of his surroundings again. His feral hatred melted away as he glanced around at all the people watching. He kept the wand trained on Peter, but the intent to use it seemed to have gone. He now appeared faintly embarrassed.

Remus lowered his wand, clearly believing the danger to be over, but Sirius remained uncertain.

"Lower it!" Fred commanded again, more urgently now.

Sirius barely heard him. He was too focused on Harry who was now staring back at him with the kind of look a faithful dog might wear if his master had just kicked him. He was strongly reminded of the way Remus had looked at him after discovering just who had betrayed his secret to Snape.

"Hey!" cried Peter unexpectedly. "That's mine!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Harry.

"What?" asked Sirius.

"He stole my wand!" said Peter indignantly.

"He did too," said Remus, looking closely.

"PUT DOWN YOUR WAND!!" roared Fred, making everyone jump.

Sirius saw Harry's eyes widen with some sudden fear. "Fred, no!" he cried. "It's not what you think!"

"WHAT?!" Fred demanded. "Look, Harry, I don't know what he said to you, but I am not going to just stand here and let HIM … "

"You don't understand!" cried Harry. "You don't …" His eyes moved helplessly from Fred to Sirius and back again. Then he seemed to come to a conclusion. He nodded to himself once, stowed Peter's wand away in his pocket, then bolted out the portrait hole.

"Hey!" cried Peter. "Bring that back!"

He made to follow but Remus stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Let him go," he said, and Sirius saw that his face was pale. He was just as shaken by all this as Sirius was. "Let him calm down," he said. He turned to Fred. "You can lower that now." Fred reluctantly lowered his wand and Sirius noticed for the first time that he had huge dark circles under his eyes. Had he even slept since he'd arrived?

"C'mon," said Remus, and led the other three up to the dormitory. They needed to get away from the crowd of whispering Gryffindors so they could talk. Fred and Sirius stared daggers at each other as they went.