Chapter three: Chats in the Café

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harry had never been much of a coffee drinker. Sirius had found that rather amusing considering Harry was already smoking, he figured Harry would have been the type who drank coffee on a regular basis, acting much older than he was. Sirius suppressed a laugh when Harry ordered a hot chocolate. Sirius got a cappuccino; he often enjoyed them in the evening.

Inside the shop was busy so Harry and Sirius sat outside the shop at one of its many tables. The gun-metal colored chairs matched the inside of the café nicely. They sat in silence for a while, not sure what to say to one another.

Remus had suggested that Sirius make light conversation. Get to know the boy. It would make everything much easier in the long run. It would take time and even though Sirius wasn't always patient, he gave Remus' approach a try.

"So, you don't like coffee?" Sirius asked

Harry shrugged, "Not really, it's too bitter."

"Maybe you just haven't had the right type of coffee."

"Coffee is bad for you, it stains your teeth." Harry said seriously

Sirius smiled, revealing his unstained, pearly whites, "So does smoking."

"Touché." Harry said, taking a sip of his hot chocolate.

"Why do you smoke?" Sirius asked curiously

"Why do you drink coffee?" Harry asked back. Sirius could tell that this was going to be a little more of a challenge then he had expected.

Sirius sighed and said, "I like coffee. Coffee might not be great for you, but it won't kill you like those cigarettes will."

"I like smoking, and besides, we all die someday anyway." Harry said

Sirius just nodded, "I guess that's one way to look at it."

"I suppose." Harry aid before the awkward silence fell on them again. By now the sun had finally set and stars were visible in the sky. The lights from the café supplied Harry and Sirius with ample light. Harry watched as a couples walked in and out of the store with various beverages.

"Yesterday, you said that you were here to get me." Harry brought up out of no where.

Sirius nodded, "That's what I said."

"What does that mean exactly?" Harry asked, "I mean, I don't even know you and then you just come out of no where and ask me to live with you. What the hell is this all about?"

Sirius wasn't really sure how to explain. Harry was his godson, of course he wanted Harry to live with him, but convincing the boy was going to be harder then just saying that.

"What do you know about your parents, Harry?"

"Bits and pieces of stories. Not that much. Why?"

"Did you know that your dad was my best friend when we went to Hogwarts?"

"No." Harry replied

Sirius smiled, "We were friends. Best friends. When your parents got married, I was the best man at the wedding."

Harry thought of the old picture album that had been given to him back in first year. There was a picture in it of James and Lily's wedding. Harry had never given the picture a second thought before. There was another man in the picture too. It had only registered to Harry at just that moment that the man was Sirius. Sirius looked much older now then he did in the picture.

Sirius continued, "When you were born James and Lily made me your godfather. Your father trusted me more than anyone in the world and he knew that if anything ever happened to him and Lily they wanted me to raise you."

"Then where the hell have you been all this time, cause incase you having realized I live with the Dursleys." Harry replied indignantly

"There were some complications with that." Sirius said and Harry just looked at him with a face that read, 'What the fuck are you talking about you psycho?'

"Harry, what do you know about your parents going into hiding from Voldemort?"

"Just that he found out where they were and tried to kill me."

Sirius took a deep breath, as though dreading what he was about to tell Harry, "Harry, have you ever heard of the Fidelius Charm?"

"No." Harry shook his head

"I didn't think so." Sirius said and the continued, "It's a spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single person. The information is hidden inside the person, or Secret-Keeper, and the secret is impossible to find out unless the Secret-Keeper chooses to tell the secret. Do you understand?"

"I think so." Harry said

Sirius nodded, "When James and Lily found out that Voldemort was looking for them they went into hiding under the Fidelius. The only person who could tell the secret to where James and Lily were hiding would be the Secret-Keeper. Your parents wanted someone they could trust to be their Secret-Keeper, someone they knew would keep the secret safe."

"They wanted you." Harry confirmed

"They did. Only, I told them that I wouldn't do it. It would have been too obvious. Voldemort would have known it was me. But we told everyone that I was their Secret-Keeper anyway, just to throw them off. We thought it was a brilliant idea. Only we were wrong."

"Who was their Secret-Keeper if it wasn't you?" Harry asked

"Another friend of ours, Peter Pettigrew, he went to school with us. No one would think that they'd ever make him Secret-Keeper. He wasn't the toughest thing, so it was the perfect trick. Everyone would think it was me, when it was really Peter. Are you still with me?"

"Yeah." Harry replied, "So what happened? Voldemort still found them."

Sirius sighed, "He did. We thought Pettigrew was our friend. He was a spy for Voldemort. We never knew. We thought that there might have been a spy in the group, but we never thought it was Peter. Peter told Voldemort where your parents were hiding."

"He betrayed them." Harry said and Sirius nodded sadly.

Sirius took a breath and continued, "The night Voldemort attack your parents I was supposed to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe. When I got to his house, he wasn't there. I didn't feel right about him not being home so I went to your parent's place to check on them." Sirius paused for a moment and looked away from Harry and turned his gaze to a young couple sitting at a nearby table, "Only, when I got there, Voldemort had beaten me to the place."

Sirius' voice was very quiet now, barely above a whisper, "I'll never forget what the house looked like, I walked in and James was-" Sirius stopped, rubbed his forehead and then continued, turning back towards Harry, "I found you in your room. You weren't hurt too bad, besides the scar. You where crying so I picked you up and cleaned you off a bit; got you to calm down. That's when Hagrid showed up. I wanted to take you with me, I really did, but Hagrid had orders. He was supposed to bring you to Dumbledore, so I gave you to Hagrid and I went after Peter myself."

"You knew that he had told Voldemort about their hiding place." Harry said

"Yeah, "Sirius said quietly, "I eventually caught up with Peter. I was going to kill him myself. I cornered him in an alley, it was full of muggles. He started shouting at me how I killed James and Lily and how I was their Secret-Keeper, which was complete bullshit. Then before I could kill him he blew up the street. Killed thirteen muggles. Then he escaped, completely unnoticed."

"He set you up so it looked like you killed my parents." Harry said and Sirius nodded. Then Harry asked, "How did he escape?"

"Do you know what an animagus is?" Sirius asked and smiled a bit from the puzzled look on his godsons face. "An animagus is a person who can transform into an animal. Normally, when a person becomes and animagus they are supposed to register themselves at the ministry of magic. Peter wasn't registered, he was an illegal animagus."

"Why wasn't he registered?" Harry questioned

"None of us were." Sirius said, "Your father, Peter and myself all became animagus when we were underage so we never registered, we kept that bit of information to ourselves."

"What made you all decide to become animagus'? What type of animal was my dad?"

"Your father was a stag, I was a dog and Pettigrew was a rat. The reason we became animagus' is-well, it's not really important right now. But the point is that Pettigrew was an animagus. After he destroyed the street he transformed into a rat and ran down the gutter. He even cut his own finger off before he transform so everyone thought he was dead and that I killed him."

"So everyone thought that everything was your fault when it really wasn't."

"Yes. I was arrested the next day for murder, although, I never actually killed anyone. It couldn't have worked out better for Peter. Not even Dumbledore believed me when I told him I was innocent because he, like everyone else, he still thought I was Secret-Keeper. I was sent to Azkaban after that."

"Where?"

Sirius' face grew darker then Harry had seen it before, "It's a jail. It's in the middle of no where on this island. Highly guarded. It's a dark place, Harry. People lose their minds there. The guards are creatures called dementors. They are these cloaked figures. They suck the happiness right out of you, leaving you completely void of any emotions."

"How come you're not crazy if they are as bad as you say?" Harry asked suspiciously

"Since I was an animagus I was able to transform and keep my mind. The mind of an animal is less complex then a human so they aren't affected by dementors. They are blind, dementors. They couldn't tell I was a dog but they could sense that I wasn't so human. They assumed that I was losing my mind like everyone else so they just left me alone."

"How did you get out of jail if everyone thought you were a murderer?" Harry inquired

"Pettigrew was exposed. He had been hiding as a rat with some wizarding family. Apparently the story was, the twin sons of the family were fighting and a wand was thrown and hit their pet rat. The rat turned back into Pettigrew right in the middle of their living room. Naturally the mother of the family was shocked at the sight and stunned the mysterious man and called the ministry of magic's Auror department. They came over and identified the man as Peter Pettigrew. From there they realized that it was a huge mistake and twenty-four hours later, I was out of Azkaban. That was two weeks ago. You obviously haven't been reading the Daily Prophet; it was all over the wizard news."

"So all this time, you've been in jail." Harry said to no one in particular

Sirius nodded and a strange look appeared on Harry's face that made Sirius laugh.

"What?" Harry asked

"You still don't fully believe my story. I think that's kind of funny, that's all."

"Well, it's a lot to take in." Harry defended

"You're right." Sirius said and looked up towards the sky, "It's getting late; you should probably be heading back home anyway."

Harry gave him a confused look, "So that's it then?"

"What do you mean?" Sirius questioned

"I don't know. You said that you're my rightful guardian so why aren't you making me come and live with you?"

"I really would like you to come live with me, don't get me wrong. But if you don't want to come live with me then I'm not going to make you do something you don't want to do. That wouldn't be any good." Sirius said as he stood up

What Sirius was really thinking was 'Because bloody Remus told me that it should be your decision to come live with me. You have two weeks to decide before I drag your sorry ass home with me whether you like it or not.'

Harry just nodded and stood up also. For a second, Sirius looked like he was about to reach over and pull Harry into a hug, but he resisted temptation. Instead he extended his hand and Harry took it.

"I guess I'll be seeing you then." Sirius said

"What do I do if I want to reach you?" Harry asked, dropping his hand.

This was good for Sirius. Harry seemed interested in the idea of moving in with Sirius. "I'll be around for the next few days. I'm sure we'll see each other at the park or in town sometime soon."

"Right." Harry said as he turned away, "I'll see you then."

"Bye, Harry."

Sirius watched Harry walk away from the café. He waited till Harry was out of sight before he actually headed home for himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was only a little after nine when Harry reached his aunt and uncle's house. Something wasn't right. The lights in the house where on and the car was in the drive way. This wasn't good. The Dursley's didn't stay at their friends after all, they were home early.

"Shit." Harry said as he opened the front door to the house and stepped inside. Dudley gave Harry an evil smirk as he walked into the kitchen. Harry just stood where he was, raising an eyebrow.

"Where have you been boy?" Uncle Vernon asked from the top of the stairs.

"I was-er-talking a walk." Harry replied

"None of your chores are done." Uncle Vernon said as he walked down the stairs, "Why aren't your chores done?"

Harry looked nervously at his uncle as he descended the stair case. Vernon was twisting a belt in his hands and he was glaring at Harry viciously. Harry swallowed hard and sighed.

"Close the door." His uncle instructed. Harry looked at the door, and for a second he wanted to run, but he realized he had no where to go. Harry slowly closed the door, watching the stars disappear as the door clicked shut.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: That was chapter Three. Hope you all liked it. A bit sad at the end. So Harry and Sirius finally talked and now we know why Sirius isn't in jail. Poor Harry, his life is sad.

I hope you all enjoyed that chapter. Please read and review.

Just as a side note, When Sirius and Harry are talking about stained teeth, Sirius' teeth should probably be in horrible condition because of Azkaban, however, due to the magic of my writing, he used magic toothpaste that corrected all his dental problems. Isn't magic fun! Lol.

And just incase certain things are confusing time wise:

Hogwarts ended for Harry in mid/end of June right, so Sirius is freed around, let's say June 27th.

So now it's probably around July 10th.

A week before Harry's birthday is when the Weasleys leave for Egypt and Hermione is already on vacation in France.

Just so timing doesn't get too confusing. Please read and review.