A/N: Ok, I'm really not happy with this chapter, but I wanted to put it up before I went to visit my family for the long weekend. I'm quite open to criticism here. And I'm sorry to have cut off so abruptly. I will actually give explanations in the next chapter. Promise! I have at least three chapters more to go before I decide whether I just end it or introduce an actual plot, whereas before I thought I'd only have two after this point.

And wow! That's a lot of reviews to get! I'm actually a bit embarrassed to have such a disappointing chapter on offer. Well, I'll quit moaning about it already.

As always, thank you to everyone who reviewed! Thank you to everyone who enjoys the fic. And, a special thanks to the underrecognized people, the ones who actually read A/Ns. It's nice to think that someone might be paying attention to my incessant blathering and actually gleaning the rare bits of useful information from the senseless mass of senselessness.

Now read the chapter.

Chap. 6

"Who's Dumbledore?" Harry ventured. He then yelped when Sirius picked him up without warning and took him back to the living room.

"He's the Headmaster of Hogwarts," Remus answered.

"Meddling old fool is what he is," Sirius answered, setting Harry back down on a brown sofa.

Remus opened the front door. "Headmaster, I thought that it might be you. Please, come in. You got my owl, then?"

Dumbledore turned out to be an old man with an impossibly long, white beard, and small, gold-framed glasses. The bathrobe-trenchcoat thing he wore was much more complicated and colorful than either Sirius's or Remus's, with gold trim and embroidered silk. He also wore a tall, pointed hat so that he had to duck his head to fit through the doorway.

"I did, indeed," Dumbledore said. "And I seem to be the only one."

"Yes, well, it couldn't be helped. I only have the one owl, you see."

"Naturally. The Ministry has been informed, however. They are calling off the search even as we speak."

"Exactly as I had hoped," Remus answered, though he sounded less than thrilled. "Would you care to sit down? Tea?"

"Tea would be just the thing, thank you." Dumbledore took up the wingback chair Harry had been in earlier, facing the sofa and its two occupants, one a bewildered boy and the other a petulant man. Dumbledore inclined his head to the latter. "Sirius."

"Headmaster."

Harry felt as much as saw the Headmaster's gaze land upon him, the mild blue eyes penetrating deep. "Hello, Harry."

Harry glanced sidelong at Sirius before offering a quiet, "Hello."

"You gave everyone quite a scare."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"There's nothing for you to apologize for," Sirius informed him.

"Everyone will be happy to know that you've been found safe," Dumbledore said.

Harry didn't think that his aunt and uncle would really care all that much, so he just shrugged.

"And you've enjoyed your time with Sirius?"

Harry hesitated there, still feeling a bit uneasy in this living room, with these people. He'd enjoyed some of his time, but Sirius's moods varied so widely, he couldn't be sure what to think.

"Why ask him that?" Sirius demanded. "In the past tense, like it's over and done with?"

"We both agree that Harry's protection is the first priority—"

"There's more than one type of protection. Keep his body running so he can fight your battles for you? Not anymore. And don't tell me you don't know all about his bloody aunt and uncle. There's no such thing as magic, he told me. James Potter's son. If you think for even a moment—"

"Tea and biscuits," Remus announced upon entering the living room.

Harry thought it was very quick to have got tea ready, but decided that lots of things must be possible with magic.

Remus carried the tray to the coffee table. After the partitioning of tea and biscuits (Harry got a full three, just like each of the adults, and even got two big scoops of sugar for his tea), everyong sipped from their beakers in a tense silence. Harry leaned back on the couch and munched a biscuit, crumbs falling all over his chest.

"I was going to take Harry to Diagon Alley," Sirius told Dumbledore, sounding extremely civil, like when Uncle Vernon had to talk to Mrs. Figg. "He needs a proper introduction to the wizarding world, and it seems I need to stop at Ollivander's, as well."

"You should at least give it time to circulate that he's been found," Remus said. "If you go tomorrow, you can just stay at the Leaky Cauldron for the night."

"But tomorrow night's—"

"Exactly."

"But I was going to—"

"I know you were, but I don't want Harry here. It's much too dangerous."

"But if he—"

"No."

"Don't you want—?"

"This has nothing to do with what you or I want. This is about Harry. I will not put him in that kind of danger, under any circumstances."

"Well, sod it, then." Sirius stood. "What's the bloody use in being his godfather when everyone else decides what I can and cannot do?"

"Grow up, Black."

"Grow up? That's your answer, Lupin? I—"

"Yes, that's my answer. Lily and James are dead."

Sirius winced at that and opened his mouth, but Remus overrode him, standing as well.

"You don't get to just take him for all the fun things, spoil him rotten, and then hand him back. You've got a responsibility to him. He will always come ahead of what you want. If you're not prepared for that, then his place is with his aunt and uncle."

Sirius opened his mouth again, his hand clenched into fists and his eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, but no sound came out. Half a moment, and his gaze slid toward Harry, who tried to blend in with the couch as much as possible.

Sirius growled something angry and incomprehensible before stalking out the front door and into the rain.

The house shook with the force of the door slamming, and then everything got very, very quiet.

Remus looked suddenly embarrassed, ducking his head at Dumbledore and then Harry before shuffling back into his chair.

Harry looked between the adults for several long moments. Remus stared at the fire, or into his tea, or anywhere that wasn't one of the other two occupants of the room. Dumbledore, on the other hand, looked quite as though he were taking a quiet cup of tea on a relaxing afternoon.

It turned out to be Remus who broke the silence, regarding the boy over his beaker.

"He doesn't mean to frighten you, Harry. He's been in prison for eight years. He needs time to sort everything out."

Harry nodded mutely. He looked up at the windows when he heard a deep bark, followed by the squawks of birds. "Can…can I still ask questions?"

"You may always ask questions," Remus answered.

"Oh." He looked down at his feet for a moment, then asked, "Can wizards…turn into animals?"

Remus looked surprised, but then smiled a little. "A very few can. They're called Animagi."

"Is Sirius an Animagi?"

"An Animagus, yes. Have you figured him out so quickly?"

"He looks like Padfoot. I mean. He does in the eyes. And you called him Padfoot. And he knew what I said last night, and only Padfoot was there then. And they were never here both at the same time."

Remus's smiled grew wider. "Very good, Harry. He decided not to tell you straight off. You've already had quite a lot to take in."

"Padfoot was nice to me."

"Harry, Sirius loves you as much as if you were his own son. He has a lot to deal with right now, but how much he cares won't change. He says that being a dog is just easier. He doesn't have to think as much."

"So…whatever Padfoot is like, Sirius is like, too?"

Remus nodded.

"But it's harder for Sirius to be Sirius…'cause…being a dog is easier?" Harry frowned because that didn't come out right at all.

But Remus must have understood what he meant, because he nodded again. "Padfoot is just Sirius if Sirius didn't have to worry about so many things."

Yeah, that was what Harry wanted to say.

"I think," said Dumbledore, who Harry had nearly forgotten, "that I would like to hear exactly how you and Sirius found Harry when so many Aurors could not."

"Oh. Yes, of course." Remus set his cup aside and considered.