A/N: You know when you had planned a short couple hundred-word section to start of a chapter, well things spiralled out of control a little… it became 1500 words… Oh well I enjoyed writing it.

July 2nd 1994, 12 Grimauld Place, London

Sirius looked over at Harry's sleeping form, checking if he was asleep. After a few hours of his and Remus' storytelling, Harry had gone to bed, using the bed in his room as Sirius didn't trust the rest of the house to be safe at all. Moony was standing at the windows, tying a letter to the leg of Hedwig that was addressed to the Lord Greengrass. After Remus pet Hedwig and watched him turn out the window, he turned to Sirius and asked, "What were the Dursleys like? I remember that Lilly always complained about the husband of her sister."

Sirius grumbled, "There the exact opposite of Lily, I don't think Dumbledore could have found a worse place for him."

"That bad?" Remus questioned. Moving over and sitting on the edge of the bed next to Harry.

"Yes, it was awful. There was a cupboard beneath the stairs with a pillow and bedding in it. I can only assume that Harry has slept there before. His relatives plastered the house with family pictures and a little fat boy, yet none of the pictures contained Harry." Sirius said, his voice low and shaky.

"They didn't care for him at all did, they?" Remus said, his eyes glued to the messy haired boy.

Sirius gulped, "No, they actively hated him." A tear had fallen down his face. "When I looked in on him, he was lying next to a window. Tears covered his fae, and he was shaking like he was having a nightmare."

Lupin gave a small sigh. "At Hogwarts, the students could never stop talking about him. I've heard all kinds of things."

Sirius nodded. "I heard a few from students on the grounds whilst I was hiding."

Remus said, "His normal clothes were all in a horrible state, and all far too large for him."

Sirius commented, "Most likely hand-me-downs from his cousin."

Remus nodded. "Yet somehow he's turned out to be a great person. Most people would be horrible if they had grown up in his conditions."

Sirius chuckled, "As if the son of lily and James could be horrible."

Remus agreed, "Those two were something special."

The smiles dropped off their faces again as Sirius said, "I wanted to kill his relatives Moony. I wanted to teach them a lesson. I wanted them to feel the pain they put Harry through."

Remus was unfazed by the sudden aggression, "Why didn't you?"

Sirius replied, "You know what happened the last time I went out for revenge right?" the spite could be heard in his voice as that sole decision to go after Peter had landed him years in Azkaban, "I was better off not giving the ministry an actual reason to arrest me."

Remus smiled, "You know Harry wouldn't have approved of it either, right? Peter has harmed him more than the Dursley's ever had, and he didn't want him dead."

Sirius inclined his head in agreement, "Maybe he is a bit to good for his own good." Sirius' leg was bouncing up and down with his nervousness, he didn't want to wreck his friendship with Moony just when they could be together again, but he had to know. "Why didn't you take Harry in?"

Remus replied simply, "Dumbledore."

Sirius raised his eyebrows, telling him to explain more. Remus continued, "It wasn't for a lack of trying that I never looked after Harry, I would ask Albus every year if I could take him in, and every year he would find some way to brush me off, but he always told me that Harry was safe, although he refused to tell me where he was staying so I couldn't even check up on him. "

Sirius slowly nodded, "Dumbledore has a lot to explain for, you know."

Remus grimaced, "The main reason I took the Defence job was to monitor him. It was the only way I could have contact with him, and even then, Dumbledore tried to restrict what I could do with him."

"How on earth did he explain that?"

"He argued Harry needed to become his own person, and that me telling him about his father would do him no good." Remus explained.

Sirius glared at Remus, "And you bought that awful excuse."

Remus defended himself, "It wasn't that excuse that I listened to, but he told me he thought if I told him stories of his father, then he would get more annoyed about them being betrayed and seek you out for revenge."

Sirius froze and thought for a minute, "Do you think he would have done that?"

Remus shrugged his shoulders, "Harry is very protective of his friends. I can only imagine he would want revenge for what happened to his family, but would he deliberately seek you out? I don't think so."

"That's what James would do. Harry is far to similar to him" Sirius concurred

Remus smiled, "He's alot like lily to."

Determination shone is Sirius' eyes, "We have to keep him safe."

Remus nodded, "That much was obvious Padfoot, have you tried activating the wards around the house?"

Sirius shook his head. "My grandfather always kept the ward stone upstairs in his office. Part of me doesn't want to go in there."

Remus said, "Well, we won't be safe without the wards activated. It won't be long until the ministry learns Harry is missing."

Sirius grunted, "Well, this house certainly isn't safe. Mind coming up there with me? I'd appreciate the backup, just in case."

"Of course." Remus replied, getting up off the bed.

The two walked up the stairs in the house. There was only one floor above the room with Regulus' and Sirius' old rooms. It appeared to be the only floor in the house that was actually clean; the floor was now made from wooden floorboards and black diamond patterned wallpaper covering the walls, hanging from it were yet more portraits, but unlike the others across the house these had nameplates underneath them, each empty portrait showing a previous Lord Black, the closest nameplate to them read Lord Arcturus Black, however there was no portrait hanging above it.

Sirius stared at the blank area of the wall for a moment before muttering, "I was sure that Grandfather had a portrait made when I was a child." However, Remus didn't comment, so they walked along the hallway. At the end, there were two separate doors with signs on them. One read "Walburga and Orion Black's room", the other read, "Lord Black's office. As they approached the room, Sirius heard Remus pull out his wand, and he copied, both with wands in hand. Sirius opened the door.

He had never entered this room as a kid, as it was always locked, that it was unlocked now stood out to Sirius. It was a tiny room, there were bookshelves as the walls in the room, all of which appeared to be on various obscure forms of magic. In the centre of the room, there was a polished mahogany desk with a regal black chair behind it. The desk looked almost completely normal, with an open book left there and a picture frame on the desk. The ward stone was ingrained into the desk, which was made from a white limestone which stood out next to the brown wooden desk.

However, there was one thing which was out of place. On the desk there was a letter with the name Sirius Orion Black written on the front. Remus walked over to the letter and started casting many charms on it, then he paused and said, "There are no enchantments of any kind on the letter, it's safe to open."

Sirius slowly picked up the letter from the desk, he had seen his grandfather seldom few times since he had run away to the Potters, the last time had been at Harry's birth, when he and Charlus Potter had been in deep conversation, but as soon as James and Lily came out, he had left. He tore open the letter and looked at the parchment inside. The letter was brief and the handwriting incredibly neat.

Dear Sirius,

To activate the wards you only need to put your hand on the ward stone, it'll prick you for you blood to assure your identity and at that point they'll activate. The ward scheme around the house Is incredibly complicated as nearly every Lord Black has added to them over the last 100 years. Although I am sure you remember being taught this all in your childhood.

Look after Harry, I am sure you know all to well what bad carers can do for a child, and the Dursleys are not good people in the slightest.

You'll change the world Sirius, or should I say Lord Black?

Lord Arcturus Black

Sirius completely froze after reading the letter, the only thought ruining through his head was How. How on earth had he known? How could he have predicted this would happen? Surely it was impossible, right? But clearly it wasn't. Remus looked on at him before holding out his hand, "May I read it?". Sirius stiffly nodded his head before handing over the parchments silently.

After reading it, Remus' expression was much the same as Sirius'. They were in complete shock. Remus quietly said, "Perhaps we should go back to your room and sleep on this."

Sirius let out a small sigh as the two stood in silence, Sirius walked around to the other side of the desk and put his hand on the ward stone, he felt a slight prick on his hand as it checked his blood, then felt a rush of magic course through him as the wards activated.

From behind the desk, Sirius could now see the picture on Arcturus Black's desk. It was a picture of him and Regulus before Sirius went off to Hogwarts. Everything just made no sense to him. He was sure that his grandfather had hated him. He had never helped him out with the situation with his parents.

He decided it was best to listen to Remus' idea to get some sleep, as the two walked back down to Sirius' room in complete silence.

July 2nd 1994, Minister of Magics office, Ministry of Magic, London

Cornelius Fudge had already had an awful day, there were all kinds of logistical issues that had needed his attention for the Quidditch world cup final happening in around a month, and the negotiations for Durmstrang and Beauxbatons to come over for the Triwizard tournament were proving hard.

He sat in his green leather chair looking at the Fiery face of Albus Dumbledore appearing in his floo, normally he would be delighted to listen to some advice from Albus, but with recent events going down at the end of the year in Hogwarts and Albus' grave expression, Cornelius did not have his hopes up.

Dumbledore sighed, "Ah Cornelius, it is good to see you, however I am afraid that I do not bring good news for you."

Cornelius replied, "Excuse my short patience, Albus, but what is the issue? I've had an incredibly tiring day."

"Yes, I imagine the Triwizard negotiations have been hard. I can only apologize for not being present as I've had a rather large issue come up, as Harry Potter has gone missing from his residence."

Cornelius paused for a moment. Normally a student going missing wouldn't be an issue for the minister, but this being Harry Potter made things slightly different, but it was still odd that Albus had reported this to him. So, he asked, "Obviously, I hope we find the boy soon, but why does this concern me so heavily?"

It was perhaps one of the few times in Cornelius' life that he had seen Albus give a short and exact answer. "Because the wards around his residence show that it was Sirius Black who has taken him."

"WHAT!" Cornelis bellowed, "How on earth could he even get near the place? Dumbledore, you said Potter's home was warded!"

Dumbledore was quick to explain himself, "It was warded so that anyone who intended harm towards Harry could not get close, so Black must have a way to get around the wards."

Fudge pleaded, "Albus, I have spent now an entire year trying to hunt down Sirius Black, the wizarding community, when they learn that the murdered has kidnapped the boy-who-lived. Please tell me you have some leads."

Dumbledore reassured him, "It appears Black has bigger plans with Harry than just killing him, as clear from that night at Hogwarts. So Harry is still alive. There will be no way the two of them can hide out of sight in the wizarding or muggle world, so he must have base."

Fudge complained, "They have the whole of Britain. Where on earth would their hideout be?"

Dumbledore answered, "The best place I can think of would-be Sirius Black's old home, 12 Grimauld Place. I would advise to station aurors outside that location to see if you can capture him. "

Fudge however didn't see the effectiveness of that plan, "Albus you know as well as I do they will just run away from that location, the Black's home will be warded to the hilt they'll run at the sight of aurors."

Dumbledore chuckled, "Ahhh, Cornelius you see that is the genius behind this plan, the wards around the house will prevent any kind of apparition in or out, so in order to move they will need to take down the wards, giving your aurors the chance they need to go in and at least find some clues to where they will go next."

Cornelius sighed, "This better work Dumbledore or I'll make sure it's known you allowed Potter to be captured. I'll be putting in the prophet tomorrow that they will station Aurors across the country at potential hideouts, whilst only stationing them at Black's home. That way, it will scare them to travel somewhere new."

Dumbledore slowly nodded his head, "it is good to see that you still have your wits about you Fudge" and with that Albus' head disappeared from the floo.

On the other end of the floo connection Albus stood in the headmaster's office of Hogwarts, he knew that Sirius and Remus were too smart to get caught by the aurors; he imagined the wards would have been up as soon as he left the house. Hopefully, the sight of aurors would put them on alert, something they needed to be successful with their bold plan. It was worth it, even if they suspected it was him behind the tip off.

July 3rd1994, 12 Grimauld Place, London

Harry was woken up by the flapping of wings entering the rooms and a shout from outside the window, he immediately shivered at the coldness in the room before opening his eyes, as he sat up in bed Hedwig, who had clearly just came in hooted at him, walking over to the owl Harry stroked her feathers and untied the letter attached to her leg, the front had "Remus Lupin" Written on it in incredibly neat writing, Harry could only imagine it was from Cyrus Greengrass.

Harry noted that Remus and Sirius weren't in the room, so he opened the door and walked downstairs with the letter in hand. The two marauders were stood in the kitchen waving there wands about, Harry leant against the door and watched them attempt to repair the dilapidated kitchen, the walls were cleared of the cobwebs hanging on the corners, the torn flooring was repaired and the dishes, which had previously been covered in mould, were cleaning themselves in the sink.

It took them a few minutes to repair the kitchen to an acceptable state, when they had completed the cleaning Harry looked around with a grin on his face, it would have taken him hours to get everything done at the Dursley's, he muttered to himself, "I love magic." Although apparently, he hadn't said it as quietly as he thought as Lupin chuckled.

Sirius however complained, "We wouldn't have to of done any of that magic if Kreacher would do his damn job." Remus rolled his eyes at his old friend's comment.

"I told you not to be too hard on the elf, he's old and has been here alone for years." However Moony dropped his point and turned to Harry, pushing him a plate of toast. "I assume that letter is the response from Cyrus?"

Harry nodded his head and handed it over to his old defence professor, a few moments later he folded the letter and placed it in his pocket, "Good News?" Sirius asked

"It is good news; He's asked to meet me and Harry for lunch, at 11 o'clock today." Remus flicked his wand to show him the time, "So we have around 20 minutes"

Sirius looked a little surprised, "That is good news, you didn't mention me in your letter at all did you?"

Lupin shook his head, "No I just said that Harry is interested in taking his seat on the Wizengamot and asked for his help with it."

Sirius calmly nodded his head, "In which case I need to two of you to explain the situation to him, if you can convince him that I am truly innocent he will be a huge boon in helping us get me a trial."

Remus agreed, "I think that Cyrus will be quick to understand, he's always been fairly bright, but how on earth are we going to get there."

Harry swallowed a piece of the toast he was eating and asked, "Surely, we can just use the floo network, right?"

Sirius shook his head, "No this house has been disconnected form it long ago, and I don't see the ministry allowing a black home to connect to it at the minute."

"So how about apparition?" Harry asked again.

Remus replied, "That's how we would ideally get there, but why don't you come and look at the window over here?"

Glancing outside the window Harry saw that there were 4-5 people dressed in muggle clothing stood outside the house, however they were clearly not muggles, as one had their wand in hand. "There are aurors stationed outside of the house, they've been there since last night, someone tipped them off to where Sirius might be."

Sirius Grumbled, "Bloody Albus told someone, I imagine they know that you're missing to" he said nodding to Harry.

"Can't we just apparate from in here though?" Harry asked

Sirius still looking annoyed answered, "Nope, the wards around the house stops any apparition in or out."

Harry said, "You know your yet to explain to me what these wards are."

Remus questioned, "Have you never come across them in the Hogwarts library?"

Harry shook his head, "Should I of?"

Remus answered, "Maybe. If you had taken runes, you definitely would of heard of wards, it's introduced in third year and it's the main focus of fourth year."

"So, what do they actually do?"

Remus explained, "There essentially a set of spells and enchantments used to protect an area, in this case they protect this house. They work by inscribing runes into various kinds of magical stone, then channelling small amounts of magic into the ward. Once they have been created, they can be bound to an area, and the enchantments on the ward apply to the area."

Sirius jumped in, "The ones around this house mainly focus on preventing people get in, only a Black or someone who a Black lets in can access this property."

Harry asked, "Surely you can just destroy the stones once there placed around an area, then the protections would fail?"

Remus smiled, "Of course you can, but what if someone was to cast a disillusionment charm on the ward? Or if they were to weave spells onto the ward that protects it from certain spells?"

"So what are they just a form of invincible protection? How on earth would you get into a place that is warded well."

"Well at a basic level ward can be split into two different kinds. If someone is standing outside the wards and casts magic at the area it protects the wards can either absorb the magic, or let it pass through. Those that absorb magic can be broken by casting enough magic at it, but those that let magic through don't do a great job at protecting what's within them."

Harry shook his head, overwhelmed by the information, "It all sounds far to complicated."

Sirius laughed, "It's one of the harder branches of magic to learn, Arcturus Black and Charlus Potter are 2 of a select few who ever really mastered the art."

Harry dragged them back on topic, "So how are we going to get there, without apparition or the floo network."

Sirius raised an eyebrow, "Who said we couldn't apparate?"

Harry exclaimed, "I thought we had just concluded that the wards around this place stopped that."

Sirius replied, "We can turn of the wards." a small grin was forming on his face.

Remus looked thoughtful, "It's a high-risk strategy, the aurors will almost certainly notice the wards being disabled, whether or not they will notice in time is entirely different."

"They would only have around 3 seconds to react, there is no way all 5 get in during that time. With a bit of luck none of them will make it." Sirius argued

Harry protested, "Surely we can't take that risk, Sirius you'll be the only person here, what if one of the aurors capture you? They'll have the dementors kiss you before the day is over."

Sirius shrugged his shoulders, "I'm sure I can still hold of one or two aurors, I didn't turn entirely useless at magic in Azkaban you know."

Harry however was adamant, "We're not taking that kind of coinflip, knowing my luck the worst would happen"

Sirius sighed falling into a deep thought. Why on earth did James' son have to be reasonable, the marauders would of taken that idea and executed it perfectly. His mind fell on the marauders for a whilst, there must have been some prank which they had pulled in the past which he could use now. He remembered them potioning Slytherins to make animal noises and tricking Bertie Bott's every flavour beans to always be the same flavour of rotting fish.

Then he remembered a time during there 5th year, when one of the 7thyear Slytherins had harassed James when he was in the library one night. So in retaliation the following night the marauders had tricked him into an empty classroom on the 6thfloor by using a few compulsion charms, and then charmed the door to repel him whenever he touched it using the imperturbable charm, it had confused the not particularly bright future death eater, it had taken him a full 10 minutes to figure out that it didn't repel magic and he then cast the counter curse on it. But that spell should be enough to hold the aurors for a few seconds, maybe even a minute.

He then spoke up, "Remus do you remember when we charmed the door to not let Thorfinn Rowle open the door in our 3rdyear?"

Remus smiled and nodded his head, "The Imperturbable charm if I remember correctly, I'd read about it for charms essay the week previous, it was an idea I was particularly proud of."

Harry asked, "I know of charms to unlock doors, but how can one stop you from opening it?"

Remus turned to him and answered, "The charm stops any object from touching it and reflect it. I believe your familiar with the knight bus.

Harry nodded his head remembering the hectic bus journey he had taken last year.

Remus continued, "The whole bus has the charm cast on it, which stops it colliding with anything on its travels."

Harry snorted picturing what the Marauders had done, "So he got pushed away when trying to open the door."

Sirius and Remus both smiled at Harry's amusement before harry kept talking, "It feels like all to simple of a solution to be honest."

Sirius nodded his head understanding, "Magic often feels like that, often the simplest answers are the most effective though."

Remus cast another charm to check the time. "10 minutes till we need to be there. Shall we get going?"

Harry nodded his head, Sirius said, "up to my Grandfather's office then, you can apparate as soon as the wards are disabled."

As the trio walked out of the kitchen Remus turned to the door and cast, "Impterbabilis". Once up in the previous Lord Blacks office Sirius turned to Harry to give him a few words of advice.

"Dealing with a head of an ancient house is no easy task Harry, especially persuading one that a known mass murderer is innocent."

Harry mumered, "Things are never gonna be easy for me are they."

Sirius chuckled, "I believe in you Harry, do not try to fancy talk Cyrus or waste his time. Just be honest, he has probably heard numerous stories from his daughter in your year. But he will be reasonable with you."

Harry took a deep breath before saying, "Alright"

Remus asked him, "Have you ever side along apparated before?" Harry shook his head, "Well it is not a particularly pleasent feeling I'll warn you."

Sirius tilted his head in agreement before reassuring him, "You will grow used to it in time however, are you ready?"

Both Remus and Harry replied, "yes."

Sirius looked at them both and placed his hand on the ward stone engrained in the desk. "Good Luck. 3..." Harry took in a deep breath preparing himself.

"2... 1... Now!"

And with a loud pop they disappeared from the office, leaving Sirius alone in the room. He quickly reactivated the wards and cast a look at the picture of him and Regulus on the desk, as he began to think back to his Grandfather's letter.

A/N: Please review! It helps motivate me to write more, but regardless the next chapter will be up by the end of the week