Author's Note:
This is a bit of a long chapter and a steamy chapter too!
And in case you haven't noticed yet — Harry's body is going through some changes ;)
Reviews and Comments: To alix33: Thank you! Remus definitely got boyfriend points for accompanying Tonks to her Christmas party. To Guest: Thank you! I like having Harry be friends with his dorm mates and yes, Seamus was having a wank when another boy walked in and caught him haha. Snape is a git, yes. Thank you!
Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!
Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!
CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE:
The One Where Sirius Says 'I Love You'
It was a few days later when Hermione asked Harry for a distraction in Potions class. They needed a distraction so that they could get the rest of the ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion which made Harry really started to wonder if Malfoy was really capable of attacking other students. Dumbledore had insisted that a second year wasn't strong enough to perform those kinds of tasks and Sirius and Remus seemed pretty sure that he wasn't guilty. But at the same time, Harry couldn't think of anyone else who would want to hurt Muggleborns at the school.
Hermione decided that she should be the one to do the actual stealing of the potion ingredients. They agreed that stealing them was the best idea as ordering the ingredients together would ensure that someone would know that they were brewing a Polyjuice Potion and the last thing they needed was for someone to find out.
Harry agreed to be the distraction, tossing a firework quickly into Crabbe's cauldron in the middle of Potions class, causing a small explosion as the potion splashed everywhere. They were making Swelling Solution and Crabble's face swelled up, his hands puffing like pufferfish.
After class, Harry was convinced that Snape knew that it had been him, but he couldn't prove it which was the only reason why Harry had escaped without detention, loss of points, or a threat of expulsion.
Harry hurried off after Hermione to help her finish the potion. He felt confident enough to assist her and was quite pleased with their results when Hermione said that she thought it should be ready just before they left for the Christmas holidays.
The Christmas holidays were fast approaching and students were flocking towards going home; all anxious to escape the dangers of the chamber threat. Harry was surprised to learn that Malfoy planned on spending Christmas at Hogwarts.
"Why isn't he going home?" he asked Ron as they got ready for bed that night. "He's always boasting about the big parties and the amount of gifts he gets, and whatnot. Why is he staying here?"
"Dunno," Ron told him as he crawled into his bed. "Couldn't tell you. But he's obviously safe, pureblood and all that."
But Harry had too many thoughts as he heard Ron start to snore and he found himself tossing and turning. Finally at two, he grabbed his mirror and headed down into the deserted Gryffindor common room. He made himself comfortable in a big armchair by the fire and stared at the mirror for a moment.
It was late.
But then he shook his head, bringing the mirror up to his mouth and saying his godfather's name.
It took almost a minute before Sirius' dishevelled face appeared. His hair was sticking up slightly and Harry knew by the look in his godfather's grey eyes that he had probably woken him from a nightmare.
"Harry," Sirius said rather hoarsely. "Hey, good timing, Prongslet."
Harry smiled at him. "Bad one?"
"The worst. Nothing to worry about. I haven't heard from you in a while, everything okay? Of course, it's not okay, it's two in the morning. What's wrong?"
Harry smiled at him. "No, nothing bad happened, don't worry." Sirius merely looked at him and he sighed. "I just couldn't sleep."
Sirius smiled at him. "What's on your mind, Prongslet?"
"I didn't tell you, but… there was another attack two weeks ago. Justin from Hufflepuff and Nearly Headless Nick."
"Nick's a ghost, Harry."
"I know," Harry said, running a hand through his hair. "He was petrified too."
Sirius was quiet for a moment. "What aren't you telling me, Prongslet?"
"I found them… and everyone thinks I did it."
"What? Why?"
"Uncle Siri… I don't want to be expelled!"
"Harry, you have no reason to be expelled! You haven't done anything wrong, have you? And don't give me that look, I know damn well you're not attacking students, but have you been doing other things?"
Harry simply scratched his nose. "No. We think maybe it's Malfoy though."
"It's not Draco, Harry," Sirius insisted. "He's only a second year, there's no way that he would be able to do it."
"He could… he does seem to hate Muggleborns, though he did say that the other day, 'Muggleborns' instead of 'Mudbloods.' It was… almost nice."
"It's not Draco, Harry," Sirius repeated. "It would be easy to blame him, but it's not him."
Harry sighed, stifling a yawn. "Draco's staying at the school over Christmas. Why would he do that otherwise?"
"He's not going home for Christmas?" At Harry's eager nod, Sirius ran a hand over his face. "I don't know, Harry, that is strange, but it doesn't mean he's the culprit. Maybe he just doesn't want to deal with Cissy's fancy Winter Masquerade this year."
"I guess," Harry said, reluctantly.
Sirius smiled at him. "Everyone thinks it's you, huh."
"I keep finding people after they've been attacked. Everyone is turning against me."
"Everyone?"
Harry sighed. "No, not the Gryffindors, but all of the other houses, yeah!"
"Harry, I know how terrible it is to know people are talking about you and to be accused of something that you didn't do, but I promise you that it will blow over. Uncle Rem told me that you're also worried about Peter."
Harry shrugged. "I'm not not worried… why was he following you?"
"Harry, he's under guard at the Ministry of Magic, you don't have to worry about me. You have your friends to talk to and I'm always here to listen when you need to talk about anything."
"I know," he said, sadly, biting his bottom lip. "I'm sorry that I woke you for nothing."
Sirius smiled at him. "Never be sorry for that. I'm always here for you, you know that, even to talk about nothing. Try to get some sleep. I'll see you on Friday, okay?"
Harry nodded. "Okay. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Harry. I love you."
But when his father's face disappeared from the mirror, Harry didn't go back up to bed. He just sat in the common room watching the fire turn to embers and waited for the dawn creep in through the windows.
~ ASC ~
Sirius placed the mirror back on his nightstand, rolling over to stare up at the ceiling. Harry had woken him from a bad dream about Azkaban. He had been alone in his cell, screaming himself hoarse as he beat his hands bloody against the stone.
He smiled when Zee snuggled into him, distracting him from his thoughts, his arm wrapping around her.
"Everything okay with Harry?"
He nodded, kissing the top of her head. "I think so. The whole school thinks he's the one hurting these students and I can see that's getting to him, but there's something… something that he's not telling me."
Zee kissed the centre of his bare chest. "He'll be home in a few days. I'm sure that he'll want to talk to you then."
"Yeah, maybe."
Zee placed her hands on the bed on either side of him, turning to prop herself up and lean down to kiss him deeply. "He will."
Sirius smiled, his hands going to her wild curls, framing her face as he kissed her, sighing as her soft breasts pressed against him. "I'm glad that you're here." She smiled and he let one hand trail down to rest on her hip as he kissed her deeper, his tongue languidly stroking hers to the same rhythm that his finger stroked her hip.
Zee kissed him, a seductive twinkle in her eyes. "I'm glad that I'm here, too," she said teasingly, locking her lips on his again.
Sirius purred in contentment against her mouth, gasping for breath as she trailed her mouth down his neck. Hot open-mouthed kisses that made him pant with need. Her mouth trailed lower, over his collarbone, around and over his nipples, his ribs, his abs… Her tongue dipped in and out of his belly button and her hand slid between his legs to palm him, pressing against hot velvet.
Sirius groaned and she kissed his thighs, his hips, his knees, and then her tongue slid up his inner thigh slowly and seductively. His hand gripped her curls, whether to hold her in place or to tug her away he hadn't decided, but then her tongue was trailing over his length and all he could do was whimper her name.
She was savouring him.
It wasn't just about pleasing him, though she immensely wanted to do that; it was about enjoying every moment of it. Her lips and tongue worked in perfect tandem with her fingers and hands as she stroked and licked, tugged and sucked, while she fondled and rubbed. She reached down, slipping two fingers inside of herself, the wetness covering them and those two fingers slid beneath him and teasingly dipped one fingertip into him and he cried out her name at the shock of it.
Zee only smiled wider.
She pressed her finger in a bit deeper, took more of him into her mouth, and she squeezed him, rubbing gently with her other hand. Her finger was slick with her wetness as she worked it in and out in the opposite rhythm in which she sucked him. Sirius was panting, gasping her name with each movement.
"Oh… Godric," he cried out as she sucked just his tip, her finger still slipping in and out of him. "Oh, Merlin! Zee… fuck, I need you!"
She ignored him and slipped her finger in a bit deeper to her knuckle, making him swear and she felt him tighten. She licked him from base to tip and removed her mouth and hands, kissing his stomach and his chest, twirling her tongue around his nipple.
"Zee," he groaned attempting to slip inside of her.
"No," she said with a smirk, covering him with her hand. "Not yet."
He groaned at that and her mouth met his again for a long deep kiss, rubbing herself against him; the sensation so good that she almost cried out herself. She kissed her way back down his chest and then she straddled him, gently sliding him along her folds, but not letting him in.
"Fuck, you're going to kill me," he panted.
She smirked and continued her slow torturous movements. His hands moved to her breasts and she took them off, pinning his wrists over his head. "I didn't say that you could touch me yet," she whispered, licking his neck.
Sirius' hips moved towards her, but she simply slid off of him. She turned around, sitting on his stomach, her hand gently massaging his balls, rubbing and rolling them in her hands, and he moaned her name.
"Merlin, Zee, what are you doing to me?" he hissed.
He was so hard, so desperate for release, and she was denying him.
It was the hottest and most frustrating thing he had ever experienced.
He knew that she was suffering just as much as he was. She was so wet that she was leaving a hot trail along his stomach as she worked him. He gripped the bars of the headboard desperately, doing his best not to touch her as he watched her round beautiful arse bounce along his chest while her hands worked him. The red and gold dragon along her spine glistening in the soft night light. Then she turned around to look at him, reaching down to slip one finger inside of herself and he groaned.
"I want to touch you. I want to bury myself so deep inside of you that I don't know where you begin and I end," he told her, his eyes on her finger.
Zee only smiled at him. The finger she had been using on herself slid over his lips and he licked eagerly, sucking it into his mouth to taste her, popping it out of his mouth loudly and then she moved that finger beneath his balls and slid it back into him…
"Holy fucking… fuck, Zee… Merlin!"
She smiled, pressing it against him, massaging in a slow concentric circle that was maddening. Sirius' legs twitched, falling open wider, and he dragged his knees up as Zee slid back down his body and slid her teeth along him. The soft bite on his thigh making him groan.
She pressed his thighs open wider, sliding his thick length between her large breasts and he groaned in response. She slid him between them, fondling him as she squeezed him between the large, soft mounds.
"Zee… please," he panted.
Zee bent her head and sucked on the tip pointing out between her breasts, sucking gently, and his balls tightened. She fondled them, squeezing lightly and then she dropped him again and he swore.
"Zahira!"
She grinned, sliding back up his body, her tongue rolling across his nipples as she adamantly denied him orgasm. "Not yet," she told him, moving to suck at the pulse in his throat.
Her wet thighs slid over him, across his abs and then she was kneeling over him, hovering and he licked his lips a second before she pressed herself down and his mouth found her.
He held the headboard tighter as his tongue swirled and flicked. If he touched her now… if he let his hands go, he was going to shag her so hard… he'd let her play this game he thought, suckling her as she cried out and when she came, he drank her in, groaning into her as his cock pulsed desperately between his legs.
Zee slid down his body, rubbing herself against him, kissing his lips, his neck and then covering him with her mouth again. He groaned her name, repeatedly panting it with every kiss and when he felt his balls tighten again a second before she released him he swore.
"Zee, I swear to Merlin… if you don't let me fucking come, I'm going to —"
"—You're going to what?" she asked him, blowing softly on his erection. Her hand palmed him gently, enough to torture him further. "I'm just distracting you."
"Fuck me."
Zee smirked at him, kissing him softly. "Such a naughty mouth on you, Mr Black, you really should be punished."
She slid her hand down, rolling them onto their sides and she spanked him lightly. She slid a finger into his mouth again and he sucked on it dutifully, still holding the headboard so tightly that his fingers had turned white. She tugged her finger free and slid the tip lightly along his bum, slipping in and out, dancing along the edge, teasing him and his hips rolled into her.
"Zee…"
Zee smirked and kissed him, pushing him back onto his back and straddling him. She slowly took him into her, inch by inch as he panted, desperate for her. "Touch me, Sirius," she whispered.
Sirius didn't need any more encouragement. He sat up, lifting her legs and throwing them over his shoulders as she cried out and he slid even more deeply into her. Zee threw her head back in pleasure and he bent his head to suck on her breasts, his hips moving quickly against hers in tandem.
His balls tightened and he cried out her name as he finally came, burying himself deeper inside of her, stretching her as his orgasm went on and on, the intensity of it shocking him. Colours flashed before his eyes and he bit her nipple, hard, and she screamed in pleasure, coming over the edge with him. She continued to ride him, milking the last bits of pleasure from him and then she slid bonelessly backwards, her legs sliding off of his shoulders and she ran a hand through her sweaty curls.
"Well, that was definitely a distraction."
Sirius grinned at her, his own hair sticking to his forehead, his limp cock pressed against her. He stretched out on top of her, twining his fingers with hers as they both lay like the dead sideways across the large bed. He kissed her deeply.
"That was… that was the most intense orgasm I've ever had in my life," he told her honestly, kissing her neck. "That was fucking fantastic."
She could only nod, sighing against him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed in surprise when they merely slid bonelessly back onto the bed. "That was the most intense thing that I've ever done in my life."
Sirius kissed her softly. "I love you, Zahira."
Zee's eyes flew open in surprise. His grey gaze was staring down at her in adoration. "You — what?"
Sirius kissed her nose. "I'm in love with you."
"Is this because of what just happened?" she asked, nervously.
He grinned, his hand moving to fondle her breast. "No, though it might have made me love you even more… I've… I've been falling for you for a while now and I just… I looked at you just now and I knew it. I'm in love with you. Completely, irrevocably in love with you."
Zee cupped his cheek in her hand, her dark brown eyes on his. "I'm in love with you, too."
His eyes lit up and he kissed her deeply, rolling her onto her side and spooning her tightly, their lips meeting again. He broke away and kissed her shoulder, her arm, and tightened his arms around her. He loved her and the only thing he knew was that she made him incredibly happy.
He kissed her shoulder again. "Zee?"
"Hmm?" she asked, her eyes drifting closed.
"Will you be my girlfriend? Officially?"
She laughed, turning her head to grin at him. "I guess it has been over a year and all, we should be official at something."
He grinned and kissed her. "Exactly."
"Sirius?"
"Hmm?"
She kissed him softly. "I'd love to be your girlfriend."
He grinned against her mouth and snuggled her tightly in his arms. "Good."
~ ASC ~
The next morning, the potion was ready and Hermione was insistent that they had to use it before Friday if they were going to get anything out of Draco. They voted on the Thursday night before they went home for the holidays.
Harry and Ron were going to be impersonating Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione had filled some cauldron cakes with a sleeping draught to knock them out. Hermione was going to be Millicent Bulstrode, as she had apparently gotten some of her hairs off of her robes in the duelling club. Neville would be the watchdog, to help get them back to the girl's bathroom safely for when the potion ran out.
Harry and Ron were successful, grinning at each other as they locked Crabbe and Goyle in a broom cupboard with some of their hairs clutched between their fingers. They dropped it into the potion, watched it bubble in disgust as Ron stated how glad he was not to be drinking anything with Crabbe's toenails and quickly gulped it down. Hermione stayed hidden in her bathroom stall after drinking the potion and refused to come out. They only had an hour, so they reluctantly left her with Neville, who had promised to stay with her before they hurried off to find Draco.
As they headed out, they tried to take on the characteristics of the two boys who usually trailed after Draco Malfoy looking tough.
They were lucky enough to find Draco leaving the Great Hall and bounded over to him.
"There you two are! Have you been stuffing your faces this whole time?"
Harry and Ron, now Crabbe and Goyle, nodded quickly.
Draco gestured for them to follow him so they did, trailing after him towards the dungeons and ultimately the Slytherin common room. The password was 'pureblood' as Draco said it with relish and the hidden door opened revealing a large circular stone common room decorated in silver and green.
It was mostly deserted, many of the students still at the holiday feast. Marcus Flint looked up from his spot by the fire and nodded at Draco.
"Good timing, the Bloody Baron just left, he's putting everyone on high alert since Nearly Headless Nick got petrified. He says that no ghost is safe and that we have to stay in our common rooms."
Draco rolled his eyes as Flint got up and hurried over to greet the dark-haired girl who had just entered. "Can you believe that a ghost was attacked this time?" Draco asked, turning to glare at the two of them. "It's unbelievable! Why would anyone even be bothered to attack a ghost? What's the bloody point?"
Harry shrugged. "You must know who could have done it."
"I've told you a million times I don't, Goyle. If I did… maybe I could help them, get rid of the Muggleborns. Like Granger."
"What about Granger?" Blaise asked, coming up the stairs from where Harry assumed were the boys dormitories. "You still mad that she bested you on that Potions quiz?"
"Shut up, Zabini! She didn't best me! She got one mark higher — there's a difference!"
"Yeah, one mark of a difference," Blaise teased as Draco scowled at him.
Harry grinned. He was glad that Hermione had bested Draco and that it goaded on him enough to complain about it. "We were talking about the Chamber of Secrets."
Ron grunted from next to him in a very Crabbe like manner. "We want to know who the heir is."
Blaise whistled, tossing himself onto the couch and stretching his legs out. "So would we all. Your father still won't tell you about who opened it before, eh?"
Draco shook his head, plopping down into the armchair across from Blaise. "Not a word. He says that it was before his time and that a girl died. He says that I don't need to know anymore than that. You know what he's like."
Blaise nodded. "The girl was Muggleborn?"
Draco nodded. "Yeah, she was. It's probably why he says that I have to stay here for Christmas. With Grandfather coming in from France, he doesn't want me peppering him with questions."
Blaise snorted. "You hate your grandfather."
"Exactly, so it's more than fine with me. Mother is upset though, wants me home. Says I'm going to miss her fancy ball."
Blaise nodded. "You can come stay with my mum and I."
Draco rolled his eyes. "And watch your mum make googly eyes at her new husband? No thanks. Theo offered to let me go with him as well, he said he's going on holiday or something. Kiki is going to take him, but I'm going to stay here. I just wish that I could figure out who opened the Chamber. Can you believe the nitwits at this school actually think its Potter? Like he has the brain cells to pull off something like that!"
Harry's temper flared at the insult, but then Ron elbowed him, tilting his head towards the door. A glance at the clock told Harry that they had to get back to the bathroom on the other side of the castle before the potion wore off. And they weren't going to learn anything new here.
Blaise was looking at them funny. "You two seem more quiet than usual."
Ron stood up suddenly, grabbing his stomach and Harry did the same. "Er, stomach ache, hospital wing," Ron said and Harry nodded, both of them hurrying off as Malfoy and Zabini looked after them with confusion.
By the time they got back to the girl's bathroom, the potion had almost completely worn off. To their surprise, Hermione had accidentally added cat hair to her potion and the sight of her had all three boys laughing, despite her angry glares. They brought her to Madam Pomfrey and then Harry and Ron filled Neville in on what Draco had said.
"So, it's definitely not Draco then," Neville said, nodding. "I'm not really that surprised."
"Me neither," Harry said honestly. "I just wish that I knew who it was. He did seem the most likely culprit with his remarks."
Neville nodded as they headed back to Gryffindor Tower.
But that night, Harry couldn't sleep again. Thoughts on who had opened the chamber were once more on his mind and he kept tossing and turning. Finally he decided to just go down to the common room and try to finish up some of his homework so he wouldn't have to do it over the holidays.
He snuck down the stairs quietly with his book bag and stopped on the bottom step when he heard the voice. He hadn't imagined anyone else would be up this late.
He stuck his head around the stone to see who it was and his eyes widened in surprise. It was Alicia Spinnet, but it wasn't her lying on the rug there that made him gasp, it was the fact that she was completely naked. Her dark brown hair brushed her shoulders and her naked breasts pointed out, taut nipples pebbled from the bite of the air. Lying in front of her, his mouth between her legs, was Oliver Wood.
Harry's eyes widened as he realized that Wood had his tongue inside of her and Alicia was panting, her hands in his hair and her head tilting back almost far enough to see Harry standing on the steps.
He swallowed slowly, gripping his book bag and he hurried back up the stairs to the boys dormitory, his face flushing in embarrassment. He crawled back into his bed, closing the curtains around him tightly. The image of Alicia's naked body swam before his mind and his cock twitched in his pants, pulsing at him.
He had never really thought about girls before, if he was honest with himself. They were around, sure, and he knew that at some point when he got older he might want to kiss them or something, but seeing Alicia naked, those pointed breasts swollen with need, the way Wood's tongue had been licking between her legs had been really sexy, he thought. Alicia had clearly been enjoying it.
Harry reached a hand in his pyjama pants to grip himself firmly, trying to stop the pulsing there. How was he supposed to play Quidditch with her now that he'd seen her naked? He rubbed himself, unsure of what he was doing and a groan escaped him. He turned to bury his face in his pillow. He didn't want any of his dorm mates to hear him. He rubbed himself again, the friction making him sweat as he imagined he had been in Oliver's place, kneeling before that beautiful body and he came all over his hand, shocking him.
He swallowed slowly, removing his hand and looking down at the stickiness that stuck to his fingers. That had been new, he thought to himself and he flushed in embarrassment. He carefully headed into the bathroom to clean himself off and stared at himself in the mirror for a moment. Seamus had said that he had wanked himself off in the boys bathroom after lunch one day so, what he had done was definitely not wrong, was it?
It hadn't felt wrong, he thought, still unsure on what exactly had transpired.
He tugged his pants down to look at his limp cock in wonder. Dark hair had started to come in under his belly and above his penis and he touched the coarse hair curiously. The hair had only started to come in over the last few months and Harry knew that his body was definitely doing something strange because he had lost count of how many times he'd woken with the same sticky substance all over his stomach. The only thing that he did know was that he definitely hadn't peed the bed and he was immensely relieved to realize this as the thought had crossed his mind the first few times it had happened.
The thought of asking Sirius about it had him flushing in embarrassment.
He tugged his pjs back up, washed his hands and headed back to his bed. It was probably best not to think about it, he thought.
But when he closed his eyes, the image of naked Alicia was there again and half dozing, his hand slid into his pyjama pants once more and he couldn't stop himself, as he rubbed his slowly hardening cock to pleasure.
~ ASC ~
On the train ride the next morning, Hermione was still taking potions. She still had a bit of fur on her face and hands and was doing her best to hide them with her toque and a scarf. She was worried about what her parents were going to say when they saw her.
Harry was anxious to go home for Christmas. He wanted to see Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Andy, Ted, and even Zee. He just wanted to go home. He was tired of people talking about him; pointing at him in the halls. He was tired of the fear that seemed to emanate from people when they saw him as if they were truly worried that he would attack them at any given moment.
He attempted to play chess with Ron, but lost so badly that he gladly handed the game over to Neville. Hermione had fallen asleep against the window and Ginny was curled up on the seat next to her, staring blankly out at the moving landscape.
Harry moved around Neville to sit next to Ginny, startling her out of her stupor. "Hey."
"Hey," she said with a small smile.
"Are you excited for Christmas?"
She shrugged. "I'm excited to see Bill and Charlie. School was just getting… too intense."
"Tell me about it," he told her honestly. "I just want to go home too."
Ginny smiled at him, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Harry, do you really think that Colin and everyone else are going to be all right?"
"I think so, yeah. Dumbledore is pretty confident and you can always trust him."
She nodded. "Yeah."
"Ginny, are you okay?"
She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. "I'll be fine, don't worry."
The train slowed as it reached King's Cross station and Harry nodded at her. He wasn't sure if he believed her, but he thought Christmas with her family would definitely help. He really didn't like to see her so quiet and withdrawn and he felt like since she'd started at Hogwarts, she wasn't the same fun and energetic girl that he was friends with.
When he stepped off the train with his carry-on, he spotted Sirius chatting to Mr and Mrs Granger, and he hurried towards him.
Sirius grinned, tugging Harry into his arms and hugging him tight. "Harry!"
Harry grinned at his father, arms wrapped tightly around him. Sirius only smiled, leaning down to rest his chin on the top of Harry's head. It was a good minute before Harry pulled away to look up at him.
"Hi, Uncle Sirius. Hi, Mr Granger, Mrs Granger."
"Hello, Harry, dear," Mrs Granger said with a smile and then her eyes widened. "Good Lord, Greg! Hermione, darling, what happened?"
Hermione flushed under their wide eyes. "Mum, Dad."
Sirius' eyebrow merely rose, a smirk on his face. "Hi, Miss Kitty."
Hermione glared at him. "It's not funny, Sirius!"
Harry snickered. "It is a little." He grinned when Sirius took his bag from him and draped an arm across his shoulders. "Madam Pomfrey says that she'll be all right in a few days."
Sirius only nodded as they waved goodbye and headed over to the London Underground. "Are you going to explain to me why Hermione looks like she attempted to transfigure herself into a giant cat?"
Harry shrugged as they paid to get through the barrier and slid onto the tube. "Er…"
Sirius grinned. "Something you weren't supposed to be doing, I take it."
Harry smiled at him. "Hermione and I may or may not have successfully brewed a Polyjuice Potion."
Sirius' eyebrow rose. "That's a highly advanced potion. The two of you brewed it successfully, but used animal hair instead of human… where are your whiskers?"
"By accident, she didn't realize it was cat hair in her potion."
"And who was she trying to impersonate?"
"Millicent Bulstrode, a Slytherin girl in our year. She took hair from her robes, but it was apparently cat hair."
"Uh-huh. And you were?"
"Gregory Goyle, a Slytherin boy in our year."
"Uh-huh," Sirius repeated, his eyebrow rising. "Why?"
"So that we could try to find out if Draco Malfoy opened the Chamber of Secrets or not."
Sirius sighed and draped an arm over the back of Harry's seat. "He didn't, Harry. I thought we agreed on that."
"Well, I know he didn't now," he said carefully.
He quickly explained about how Neville had stayed with Hermione while he and Ron, under the guise of Polyjuice, had pretended to be Crabbe and Goyle and had found their way into the Slytherin common room to talk to Draco about the Chamber.
"Someone died last time, Uncle Sirius."
Sirius sighed as they headed out of the underground and towards The Leaky Cauldron where they would be taking the Floo home. When they stepped into the living room of Black Cottage, Sirius used a quick cleaning charm to get the soot off of both of them and gestured for Harry to take a seat on the chesterfield.
"Harry, I told you that I would look into this. You don't need to be investigating something so dangerous on your own."
"I do when the whole school thinks it's me," he protested. "Everywhere I go people are talking about me or pointing at me and running away from me like they're scared or worried that I'm going to attack them at any given moment! I'm sick of it!"
Sirius nodded. "I get that, Prongslet, and that can't be fun, but I want you to stop this. A girl died last time and… it's dangerous."
"What about the voice?"
"Have you heard it again?"
"Before the last attack, yeah."
"But not otherwise?"
"No," he admitted.
Sirius sighed. "It doesn't make sense that no one else can hear this voice. Harry, are you sure that you haven't seen anything else out of the ordinary? How did that duelling club go? You never did tell me."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Lockhart taught it. It was a joke. Snape was the other teacher and he disarmed Lockhart in two seconds! It was embarrassing! And then Lockhart told us to do the disarming charm, but he never showed anyone how to do it. I figured it out by watching Snape. But then Snape had Draco set a snake on me in our duel and well, everything went bad after that."
"Why?"
Harry sighed and buried his face in his hands. "Uncle Sirius… did you know that I can speak Parseltongue?"
Sirius opened his mouth in surprise. "I — no. I mean, you told me once that a snake told you that he was going to the English Channel, but I just thought you were being creative or imaginative."
"I can speak to snakes. I didn't know that it was a different language and I certainly didn't know that it's a mark of a dark wizard!"
"Hey!" Sirius said, draping an arm across his son's shoulders. "It most certainly doesn't make you are a dark wizard! I have no idea why you can speak it, but I do know that it is a hereditary talent that is often passed through the wizarding bloodline, but that it sometimes can skip a generation. Like Metamorphamagus for example. No one in my family has had that talent in centuries and look at Tonks." Harry only frowned and Sirius kissed the top of his head. "Harry, did you talk to the snake that Malfoy set on you?"
"Lockhart tried to be all brave and get rid of it, but he failed — again — and only succeeded in throwing the snake into the ceiling, which only pissed it off when it fell back down. It turned to attack the nearest person, which just happened to be this Hufflepuff boy named Justin and I don't know, I just yelled out for it to leave him alone and the snake listened to me, but then everyone was staring at me. They all looked so scared and Ron was pulling me away and they told me that I spoke a different language… and then the next day Justin and Nick were attacked! Everyone thinks it's me." Harry said very quickly, his temper flaring.
"Harry, let everyone think whatever the hell they want," Sirius told him. "I know how hard it is to know that people are talking about you. But I know that you didn't do this. I know that you are not hurting these people and so do the important people in your life, like your teachers and your friends. Dumbledore will find the real culprit, I know that. I just want you to be safe. Okay?"
Harry nodded, sighing. "I've never been so glad to be home."
Sirius grinned, kissing the top of his son's head. "I'm glad that you're home too. Listen, I waited for you to decorate so, why don't we go find the perfect tree and start getting into the Christmas spirit, yeah? We'll talk about all of this stuff later when we're done?"
Harry grinned back at him. "Okay."
Four hours later, they had found and cut down the perfect Christmas tree and had decorated it beautifully. Harry helped string fairy lights around the living room and they dug out all of the Christmas decorations.
Both of them were starving after their hard work, and Sirius went out to pick up a pizza for them. Harry ate happily, grinning at his father.
Sirius grinned back, sipping his wine. "All right, Harry, there are a few things that we still have to talk about."
Harry nodded, reaching for his fizzy drink. "Okay."
"First of all, I finally heard word from Kingsley today. The trial for Peter Pettigrew is going to take place at the end of January. He's been detained in a dungeon, fully charmed to keep him inside of the basement in the Ministry of Magic so that he can't transform into a rat and escape. He's guarded by two Dementors, night and day."
"Can I go to the trial with you and Uncle Rem?" Harry asked.
Sirius let out a long breath. "Are you sure that you want to be there, Harry? This man… he's the reason that you don't have parents."
"I know," Harry whispered. "And I know that he was once your friend, Uncle Siri, I… I want to be there."
Sirius nodded. He wasn't sure if he wanted Harry there, but if he wanted to go, if he wanted to watch the man get the justice he deserved, he wasn't going to stop him. "All right. Then you will be there."
Harry smiled gratefully at him. "Good."
"As for Peter, I didn't really get a chance to tell you how this all happened…"
He quickly explained to Harry about how he had suspected someone was watching him and how when Ginny had mentioned Scabbers in Diagon Alley, he had begun to worry. He explained how he had been out with Zee, caught sight of the rat, and trapped him before bringing him to Kingsley.
"So, now I'm a registered Animagus with the Ministry, but Peter is being held in custody and that's what matters."
Harry nodded. "What did Zee think when she found out?"
Sirius smiled. "She was great. Better than great, she was magnificent. She's another thing that I wanted to talk to you about." At Harry's raised brow, he sighed. "I'm in love with her, Harry."
Harry looked up in surprise. "What does that mean?"
"I don't know," Sirius said with a chuckle. "Nothing different really, I suppose. We're just taking things slowly and moseying along. She's my girlfriend and I love her. That's all."
"Is she going to live with us?"
"No," Sirius said, shaking his head. "No, she has her own home, Harry, and I'm not ready for her to live here."
Harry simply nodded.
Sirius watched him for a moment. "I thought you liked Zahira."
"I do," Harry said, quickly. He did like her and he knew that after his stupidity in the summer he wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize this budding relationship again.
"What is it?"
Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's just… things are changing."
Sirius smiled and reached across the table to gently brush his son's hair out of his eyes. "You can say that again. You're growing up on me. Harry, I love Zee. But we're still taking things slowly. Neither one of us are ready for some kind of big commitment and just having her around makes me happy. We're just dating and enjoying each other. That's all."
Harry smiled. "She makes you happy."
"Yeah, yeah, she does," he said with a smile. "And she helps keep my nightmares at bay, too."
"I'm glad. Is she going to spend Christmas with us?"
Sirius smiled. "She's going to come by and spend the afternoon with us on Christmas Eve, but she has her own family to spend Christmas with. See, nothing is changing, it's still us."
Harry grinned at him. "I know."
Sirius smiled. "But Moony and Tonks haven't told Andy and Ted yet that they are dating."
"Why not?"
"Remus is worried that they won't approve as he is so much older than her. I told him he has to do it before Christmas, but we shall see so, just in case, keep your big trap closed, okay, Prongslet?"
Harry smirked at him. "Okay."
"All right and the last thing that I want to talk to you about is about the Chamber of Secrets."
Harry's eyebrow rose in surprise. "You do know something!"
Sirius chuckled. "I don't know anything, Prongslet, not really. But I did learn a few things at my meeting last night. Abraxas Malfoy, Draco's grandfather, attended school the last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened — which was in 1943. He was a fifth year when a Muggleborn girl was killed. A prefect came forward with information regarding the attack and someone was accused of the crime, caught, and ultimately expelled from the school. But, Dumbledore never believed that the person who was accused was guilty. He was always convinced that the person was innocent and had been wrongfully accused, but he could never prove it."
"Who was it?" Harry asked, curiously.
Sirius hesitated. "I happen to agree with Dumbledore on this, Harry… I don't think that he was the culprit either." At Harry's look of confusion, Sirius sighed. "Hagrid was accused."
"Hagrid!" Harry exclaimed in shock. "He would never!"
"He had a giant Acromantula hidden away in the castle. Now this species is dangerous and will hurt humans, but Hagrid had tamed it, taught it to be kind. Not to mention that these giant spiders do not have the ability to petrify someone like what is happening to these students."
"So, he was innocent?"
Sirius nodded. "I think so, yes, but like me, the evidence was against him and he was expelled. Dumbledore convinced the headmaster at the time to let him stay on as gamekeeper all of these years, which only goes to show that he knows he's innocent, but no one could ever find the real culprit and after Hagrid was expelled, the attacks completely stopped. The governors are getting nervous and are thinking of removing Hagrid from the school because the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again."
"But he didn't do it!" Harry insisted.
Sirius sighed. "I know, Harry. I'm doing my best to let them know that. I just wanted you to be aware."
Harry nodded, yawning. "Hagrid would never hurt anyone, Uncle Siri."
"I know, Prongslet. We have another meeting the first week of January to discuss some options. But I'm doing my best to stop them from using Hagrid as a scapegoat." He stood up, stretching his arms wide. "Come on; it's late. Let's go up to bed. In the morning, we'll talk about our Christmas plans, yeah?"
Harry nodded and headed to bed. He changed into his pyjamas and rubbed Marauder's belly before the dog stretched out across the end of his bed. He said goodnight to Sirius and was surprisingly asleep before his head hit the pillow.
~ ASC ~
The sound of Sirius calling his name surprised him awake the next morning.
Harry moaned and rolled over, the sticky wetness coating the front of his pyjama bottoms again, making him flush in embarrassment as he tried to look innocent at his father in the doorway.
"Er, morning."
Sirius frowned at his blushing son. "Breakfast is ready. You okay?"
Harry nodded, tugging the covers higher. "Uh-huh."
Sirius only stared at him for a moment. "Okay. Come on down when you're ready. Marauder's been begging me for bacon for the last thirty minutes."
Harry nodded as Sirius left the room. He grabbed his wand from the nightstand and then remembered that he was home now and couldn't use magic. He cursed and attempted to clean his pyjamas in the bathroom, scrubbing at them quickly before dropping them in the hamper and cleaning himself off. He felt less awkward as he cleaned himself and got dressed before he headed downstairs.
Sirius had made French toast and bacon, his favourite, and Harry happily helped himself to breakfast as Rush sang about a working man from the wireless. They were planning on wrapping gifts and then heading to the store to buy their Christmas groceries, including the infamous ingredients for their gingerbread house.
Harry couldn't wait.
He was just happy to be home.