Author's Note:

I think it's time for Harry and Sirius to have that much needed chat!

Reviews and Comments: To White Squirrel: I'm sorry you're getting annoyed that Remus having broken the law. It's not fair and you're right, Umbitch wouldn't take too kindly to them saying an unjust law is not a law, but unfortunately that's the way it is. To Steelcode: Charlie is an amazing friend and I thought he deserved some more credit. Zee is an impressive woman and she definitely is not going to put up with any foolishness. The talk with Sirius and Harry will go as expected I imagine. It is kind of amazing that they know where all of the Hallows are. Thank you! To scrappy8: Thank you! To trekkifulron: Most likely, yes. LOL. To Wolf's scream: Charlie is definitely the best friend Tonks could ask for. Thank you! To darkhk: It was thanks. I know, this story is very long. To purplevictory: Thank you! I love knowing you get excited whenever you get an alert for my story! I'm glad you are really starting to appreciate Zee. I agree, her deliberate step into the background to let her men work things out is what makes her great. Thank you!

To speedsONEandONLY: Charlie really does make everyone's day, doesn't he? Zee definitely isn't letting anyone down. Kreacher is awesome. Thank you! To midnitewanderer: Thank you! I love Zee, too, so I love hearing people say she is exactly what Sirius and Harry need. To geekymom: Thank you! To Ana: Thank you! Charlie is definitely one of a kind. Sirius did ask Zee if she wanted to be there and Zee telling him this is something he and Harry need to do just makes us respect her so much more. Harry definitely won't be finding out any time soon. Thank you! To coloredwords: Harry definitely has a head start on defeating Voldemort. Charlie and Dora have an awesome friendship. Yes, I do believe Albus and Gellert were lovers, but I don't believe that was the time or place for him to share it. Thank you! To Guest: Thank you very much! To Sleepyhawk502: Thank you! To Moony The Sheep: Thank you for saying you love how I show each character react to the situation. I have released Harry from the burden of the Horcruxes (mostly). Thanks for recommending my fic to others.

To chthonian: Thank you! To teachergirl: As I said last time, just be patient. I have a plethora of chapters written in advance. To alix33: Sirius was a bit lonely without his family and friends around. I love having Sirius and Zee proud of Harry's grades. Thank you! To Matt9917: Thank you! To Saz J: Nah, I love that you can't wait to read the new chapter. I'm glad you liked the bits with Harry and Zee. I love making you fall more in love with the Weasleys with my Bill and Charlie scenes — thank you! To Jmcglynn522: Thank you! I love knowing you love it! More is to come!

Thank you to my Beta — SilverStarwolfe!

My posting schedule: Every Tuesday or Wednesday (usually the latter) and sometimes on the weekends.

As always, 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 for all of your continued support!

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE:

The One Where Sirius Tells Harry Not to Drink

Harry let Sirius side Apparate him back to Devon. He winced at the feeling of being pressed through a tube as they landed just outside of the property wards and made their way up the drive to Black Cottage, Harry pulling his trunk behind him. They entered the house and Marauder went mad with excitement.

Harry fell to his knees in the entranceway to greet his dog, scratching his ears and his belly as Marauder yipped happily to see his boy. Once Marauder had kind of calmed down, Harry brought his things upstairs before making his way back down to sit on the sofa in the living room and Marauder jumped up onto sofa next to him, his head in his lap.

Sirius came out of the kitchen with a big plate of bacon sandwiches. "I figured we can eat these first."

Harry helped himself to a sandwich. They ate quietly for a bit, Harry occasionally giving Marauder some of his bacon pieces. Once they were done, Sirius let out a slow sigh.

"I know that we have a lot to talk about. I promised to share everything with you and I will, but first, I would like to ask something of you." At Harry's look, his grey eyes met Harry's green ones. "Will you allow me to view the memories of your night both before and after using the Time Turner? I think that it will help me better understand everything that you went through that night… and I think that it's a good starting point to our conversation."

"I don't know how to do that," Harry told him.

Sirius smiled. "That's all right, I do."

"Okay."

"I'll be right back."

Sirius hurried up the stairs. He came back down a few minutes later carrying a basin.

"What's that?"

"It's a Pensieve. It is what allows one to revisit a memory. They used it at Peter's trial, if you remember?"

"I didn't know that you had one," Harry told him.

"I borrowed it for tonight," Sirius fibbed, smiling at his son. "Okay, I need you to hold that memory in your head and I'm going to pull a copy of it from your mind."

Harry let Sirius know when the memory was there and a minute later, Sirius had pulled a long thin silvery substance from his head and dropped it into the basin.

"We can view it together, okay?"

Harry nodded and together they pushed their faces into the silvery-blue substance in the basin. Harry felt his world shift and suddenly he was standing by the Black Lake looking at himself, Ron, Hermione, and Neville.

Neville stretched his arms up over his head as he spoke. "I wish that it would storm already. I'm dying to know what animal I can be."

"I know, me too," Harry said with a grin. "We have to figure out how to get the six of us together in case it storms this summer. The potion is ready. If it doesn't storm by the time we go home, I'm going to lock them in a case to put in my trunk."

Neville nodded. "Yeah, I'd say maybe we could all spend the summer together, but you're going to be in America."

"Only for a month," he said with a grin. "I really like Zee's grandparents and they want me to call them Grandma and Grandpa, which is nice. Plus going to Georgia is going to be brilliant. I heard it's quite hot there in the summer."

"Probably, I don't know, I've never been to America. But it was pretty hot in Brazil."

"Brazil's definitely hotter," Harry said with a grin.

"What about Sophie?" Ron asked, grinning at his friend as he continued to skip rocks in the lake. "She's going to miss you."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Sophie and I are not together, Ron. We just snogged that one night. We were… celebrating Gryffindor's win."

Hermione sighed. "Sophie snogs everyone, Harry. You're better off, trust me."

He smirked at her. "You're just saying that because you didn't like Cho."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's not that I disliked her," she said, dismissively. "I just didn't get the chance to find out as she went out of her way to ignore your friends."

He shrugged and dragged his fingers through his hair. "Girls are complicated anyway. Snogging Sophie was great and honestly, just what I needed after that spectacular Gryffindor win, but I'm not looking to date anyone right now. Besides, Sophie and I both had a bit too much Firewhiskey, which might have attributed to our snogging."

Hermione grinned. "No, Sophie just really likes to snog everyone."

Sirius elbowed Harry lightly. "Who's Sophie and why were you drinking Firewhiskey?"

Harry blushed. "I didn't have that much Firewhiskey and we were celebrating winning the Quidditch Cup!"

"Uh-huh," Sirius said with a smirk. "You know, drinking before you turn seventeen is frowned upon."

"I didn't like the taste of it anyway."

"So, if this Sophie snogs everyone, was she a good snog?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Will you just shut it and watch the memory?"

Sirius put his hands up in surrender, smirking at his son as they watched Hermione hurry off after Crookshanks and Harry, Ron, and Neville began to make their way back up to the castle. Sirius didn't speak again as he watched the memory unfold. His eyes were narrowed as he watched Pettigrew grab Hermione; stun her and drag her off into the Shrieking Shack. By the time that Bellatrix had shown up, Sirius was furious. He watched her disappear with Neville; watched himself and Zee show up in the shack and head out only to meet a concerned and terrified Remus, followed by Tonks, and then to have Remus transform and take off into the woods before Pettigrew showed up with Neville. Watching Harry and Zee grieve over his dead body was harder to watch than he had anticipated. When Dumbledore turned to Harry and Hermione, his eyes were on the headmaster, still wondering what had possessed the man to leave this up to the two teens.

He watched Harry stare down the headmaster, anger in his eyes.

"The Dementors killed him and he didn't even do anything! And now he's… he's dead!"

"I know," Dumbledore said, sadly. "But maybe he doesn't have to be."

Hermione stared at him in confusion. "Professor, there's no spell that can bring back the dead!" At his piercing look, she gasped. "You don't mean... it would be breaking every law, Professor!"

Dumbledore's eyes looked at Harry in sadness. "Yes. It would be doing everything we made you promise not to do. Are you up to the task, Miss Granger?"

Hermione stared at him for a moment. "Stop it… but the Dementors, they came and…" her eyes fell on Harry who's emerald orbs were staring at her like she was the saviour of the world. "Yes."

Dumbledore smiled. "I suggest going back to the beginning and maybe you can do more than just stop this tragedy from occurring. You know the laws, Miss Granger. I am going to lock you in. It is five minutes to midnight. Three turns should do it. Good luck."

Sirius watched as Hermione put the necklace around Harry, turned the hourglass and they disappeared, arriving in the entrance hall. He followed their movements, watched them debate how to stop it from happening and when they started running from Remus in the woods, his heart stopped, despite knowing that his friend would never hurt them. And then he watched in amazement as his son produced the most powerful Patronus and watched as it decimated twelve Dementors; watched them explode into nothing.

Kingsley had been right — it had been one hell of a powerful Patronus.

By the time the memory was over, he was shaking a bit.

He took Harry by the elbow and nudged him and together they left the memory. Sirius carefully obtained it from the Pensieve and returned it to his son's head before he disappeared upstairs. He came back a minute later with a large mahogany medicine chest and put it on the coffee table next to the Pensieve basin in front of them.

"Thank you for letting me see that, Harry."

"You're welcome. Did it help?"

Sirius shrugged. "I understand a bit better now, but I don't necessarily know if it helped or not, no." He let out a slow breath. "After Remus' trial last week, we had quite the argument. I think that we both said some things and I want to apologize for making you think that you can't trust me."

"I don't think that," he said, quickly. "I just… I feel like you don't trust me."

"And I'm sorry that you feel that way, Harry. You were right. I do suppress my emotions sometimes. It's not intentional. It's just that it's what I'm used to doing. I'm not trying to make excuses here, but that's just a fact. I grew up in a house very different from what we have here. The Blacks were an old pureblood family, wealthy and strict and well, frankly, a supporter of the dark arts. Bellatrix Lestrange is my cousin, Andy's older sister, and she is not the only member of the Black family to support Voldemort. My parents supported him, too. They weren't Death Eaters themselves, they didn't go that far, but they certainly agreed with what he had to say. They encouraged my little brother Regulus to join up, and he did. He was killed for it."

Harry stared at him. "But you knew that they were wrong?"

Sirius hesitated. "Yes, and no. It was the way that I was raised, Harry. I believed that purebloods were better than everyone else because my parents told me that it was true. I tried to play with our Muggle neighbours and I my father lectured me on why they were beneath me, on how I was lowering myself by even acknowledging them, and then he beat me for it. When I disobeyed them, my parents hit me, and when I continued to disobey — my mother used the Imperius Curse on me to force me to do her bidding. When I outgrew that and started to fight the curse, she used the torture curse to make me see reason. It's just what I was used to, I didn't know that it wasn't normal."

He let out a slow sigh as his son only stared at him.

"When I was ten, Andy finished her schooling at Hogwarts and proclaimed her love for Ted with plans to marry him. My family was so disgusted with the idea that she would lower herself to marry a Muggleborn that they disowned her and blasted her name right off the family tree. That's the kind of people that I come from. They never spoke to Andy again and in fact, my Aunt Druella, has never even laid eyes on Tonks, her own granddaughter. She has no desire to even get to know her because her father was a Muggleborn wizard. We both know that that's my aunt's loss, as Tonks is an amazing woman. If Aunt Druella knew that her half-breed granddaughter had shacked up with a werewolf, she would probably kill herself because the horror," he said with a smirk. He ran his fingers through his hair as he half-smiled at his son. "They were abusive towards me, Harry, but I didn't know that they were. It was my life and I didn't realize that it was different from anyone else's."

"How did you not know?" Harry asked him, tugging Marauder more into his lap to cuddle the dog.

Sirius sighed. "Harry, how much do you remember of your life before I brought you home?"

Harry shrugged, his fingers scratching Marauder behind the ears, rubbing the dog's neck when he titled his head back to look at him as he spoke. "I remember being scared a lot and being in the dark. Sometimes I still have dreams about someone holding my head under the water and… sometimes I remember the feel of a belt cutting into my back."

Sirius nodded, his eyes sad. "It kills me that you have those memories. When I brought you home with me, it took everything in me to not rush off and to kill those bloody Muggles for how they treated you. You didn't understand. You thought that you deserved it. You thought that it was normal for them to treat you that way because you were the freak and Dudley was their good and precious son. You didn't understand affection and when I kissed and hugged you, you just stared at me with these big green doe eyes in complete bewilderment as if you didn't understand why someone was being nice to you. You were told it was shameful to cry and I did everything that I could to make you understand that it wasn't so; that you were not a freak, but special, and to show you how incredibly loved you are."

"You did," Harry told him, sincerely. "I barely remember them."

"Good," Sirius said, slowly. "Good. I don't want you to remember that awful time. But for me… I didn't have a good-looking and suave godfather to come and take me away from it all," Harry snorted at Sirius' description of himself, making him grin, "— and my parents, they did more than just beat me. My mother was a fan of the Cruciatus Curse. She told me that it was a mark of a true Black if I didn't scream while she tortured me. If I cried, I was weak. She never kept it on me for more than a minute, but Merlin, it hurt. Neville explained it well: The feeling of being inside out and stabbed all over while being burned alive … it is a pain like you cannot even imagine and I hope to Merlin that you never do. The thing with the torture curse, Harry, is that it won't even work unless the caster wishes pain on the person that they are trying to inflict it upon. You have to really mean it."

He looked down at his hands for a moment. "You have to want to hurt someone to make that curse work. My mother used it on me quite often. She enjoyed inflicting pain on me, you could see it in her eyes. I was a disappointment to her almost from the beginning, and she relished in being able to tell me how much of a disappointment I was so that she could torture me. I once spent almost an entire summer chained to the wall in the boiler room for disrespecting her wishes, for choosing to be a Gryffindor and sullying the Black Family name by associating myself with a blood traitor like James Potter and for befriending a Muggleborn like your mother. I went back to school with my wrists cut and bruised raw from the shackles that held me in place… and I didn't tell anybody about it; I didn't go see the school healer for aid because I thought that it was normal. It wasn't until I spoke to your mum and she told me that it wasn't normal for parents to treat their children like that. Then she forced me to talk to James and I realized how bad it really was. Even then, I didn't quite get it until I was much older. I still didn't tell anyone when something bad happened at home, it just didn't occur to me. Not until I was about fourteen, fifteen years old, did it really sink in as to what was right and what was wrong."

Harry scratched Marauder absently as he stared at his godfather. "Is that why you don't talk about it because you didn't know?"

"Maybe," he admitted. "I had nightmares; a lot of nightmares. I used to wake up my dorm mates, crying or screaming in my sleep. Jamie used to hop into bed with me, ramble on until I fell asleep. He never asked me for details and I never told him everything, but I always knew that I could and that meant the world to me. Harry, other than my little brother, no one had ever really hugged me before or kissed me. Not really. When my mother hugged me, it was to whisper something to me about how much of a disappointment I was or to threaten me. When she held me close, I knew that I was in shit, and I knew that when I got home, she was going to hurt me. Reg would hug me, cry over a nightmare, and I always comforted him. I was always there for him, but other than my little brother, I had never really been affectionate with anyone before. Your mum got me out of that and so did your dad."

He smiled as if remembering something funny. "Jamie was like a mother hen sometimes, comforting me after a bad dream, hugging me whenever he saw me and when I met the Potters… the love that Fee and Monty showed me… it blew my mind. They just accepted me into their lives like it was nothing. I was hugged and kissed and worried over and even though I was a teenager, I loved it. It was… amazing to me that these incredible people could love me when no one else ever had. It's why I think I liked girls so much; touching them, shagging them… it was affection, even when it was a one night stand, it was… it was what I needed. I needed someone to touch me and they were there and I didn't have an emotional connection with them — I didn't need it. It was the contact I wanted — the physical aspect. The ones I did connect with became my friends like Thea. But Zee… she's different. She makes me feel things that I just can't put into words. Knowing that she loves me, that she loves you… Harry, it makes me feel alive in ways that I don't think I've ever been before and that terrifies me. Maybe that's another reason why I've kept it all in, why I don't talk about it. I don't know," he said, honestly.

He scratched his chin, staring past Harry to the photo of James, Lily, and Sirius hanging on the wall from the wedding, all three of them smiling widely, Sirius with his arms around both of them. He smiled and his grey eyes met Harry's.

"They were the best people I ever knew. It was your parents and your grandparents who first showed me true affection, true love, true friendship, and true family. They were everything that I had never knew I needed, that I never knew I wanted and then I had them and… it was absolutely incredible. I had never felt so blessed and so undeserving in my entire life. By the time you came around, Harry, Merlin, I took one look at you and I was so completely in love, head over heels," he said with a grin.

"I never wanted to stop holding you; touching you. I just couldn't believe that this tiny little human came from Lily and James and that someone I didn't even know, someone who was barely even a person and yet somehow… I loved you so much that I felt like my heart would burst. When you looked up at me with those green eyes, so full of trust and wonder, I promised you that you would always be loved, always be cherished and… I failed you. I let my anger, I let the so called 'Black madness' get the best of me, and I chose revenge over keeping my promise to you and I will never forgive myself for that, Prongslet, sorry — Harry. It's because of me that you were forced to live with those tossers who hurt you."

"Uncle Siri, I don't… you and Uncle Rem gave me a happy home and I barely remember them, honest."

Sirius smiled at him and put his arm around his son's shoulders, turning his head to plant a long kiss on his forehead. "I love you so much. I thought that being your godfather was an honour, but being your father, your uncle all of these years… you gave me the home that I never had and I look at you and I love you even more than I did yesterday. You're growing up into an amazing young man and I am so proud of you."

Harry blushed and hugged his father tightly as Sirius kissed his forehead again. "I love you, too." He let Sirius hold him for a moment before he pulled away. "When did you… you said that my grandparents kind of adopted you, how old were you?"

"Fourteen," he told him. "By the end of third year, I had pretty much stopped going home. I spent most summers with the Potters and they loved me. The summer before sixth year, my mother kicked me out and disowned me from the Black family. I went to James and his parents welcomed me with open arms. The hardest part was leaving my little brother behind. I worked so hard to protect him from my parents wrath; from my father's belt — and they never hurt him. But when I left… suddenly he was the Black heir, he was one to follow in the noble name of Black, and a lot of responsibility was dumped on him; a lot of the same rules and guidelines that they had tried to enforce upon me. I tried to tell him that I was there for him, but he didn't believe me. He blamed me, and rightly so. I shouldn't have let my mother goad me. I should have stayed in that house for Reg; maybe he would still be alive if I had."

Harry only stared at him. He hadn't expected his father to blame himself so much. It wasn't his fault for what kind of choices his brother made, but he knew that nothing he could say would change his mind. Sirius had been living with these kinds of thoughts for years.

Sirius let out a slow breath as Harry just watched him. "Auntie Minnie knew some of the hardships that I faced, but I mostly denied them. I told her that I was fine and that my home life was fine and without evidence and without me directly telling her otherwise — there was nothing that she could really do about it. I had my friends, I had her, and I had the Potters. They were my real family."

Harry only stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

"My little brother became a Death Eater when I was in seventh year. I was furious. I tried to talk him out of it, but it was far too late. That was the moment that I knew — I had truly lost him. Finding that locket in Number Twelve and talking to Kreacher and learning that my brother had realized his mistake; had tried to atone for it, and had tried to destroy the Horcrux that his Dark Lord had made, was more than I ever could have hoped for. He helped lead us on this path to finally putting an end to Voldemort and I will forever be grateful to him. He's a hero in my eyes and he was killed by Inferi after getting the Horcrux just before you were born."

Sirius look in a deep breath and continued. "We lost a lot of people in the war and then James and Lily learned about the prophecy. Jamie never told us about it. The only thing that he ever told us was that Voldemort was looking for them. We knew that already. James and Lily had been very lucky in terms of escaping from him. They were powerful and James was the last of the Potter line, a wealthy pureblood family that Voldemort wanted to get his hands on, so hearing that he was looking for them wasn't that hard to believe; nor that he would target you for the same reasons. Jamie told me that they were going to go into hiding and that they needed to use a Secret Keeper with the Fidelius Charm and that they wanted me to be that Secret Keeper. I was beyond honoured and I agreed wholeheartedly, but then I changed my mind. It wasn't that I didn't want to do it. Never! I was so honoured and I would have fucking died for them in a heartbeat, but I thought that Voldemort wasn't stupid, and he was going to know that I was the one with the secret. That wasn't a problem for me. I was willing to die if it would protect you and your family. But I thought that maybe we could throw him off his quest so I suggested that we use Peter instead. I thought that no one would ever suspect Peter to be the Secret Keeper. I would protect him. I would keep him safe and he in turn would keep the secret. Finding out how wrong I was haunts me to this very day."

"Uncle Siri, you didn't know that he was a Death Eater," Harry said, quietly. "I don't blame you. I know my parents wouldn't blame you either."

"I know you don't and I know that Remus doesn't either, but… I still blame myself. It was my idea to change Secret Keepers. It was my idea to trust that rat and my whole life changed because of it. I let Hagrid take you that night because I wanted revenge and I ended up in prison for a crime that I never even got the opportunity to commit and sometimes I still dream about killing Peter and I think of how satisfying that would be. That scares me sometimes, too; that I can have those dark thoughts and that that's inside of me, the capability of killing him along with the desire to. It makes me think that maybe I'm not that different from my family and that scares me. When Minnie came to visit me in Azkaban, when she promised me a trial — I felt like the world was giving me a second chance. When I brought you home, you brought a light into my life that I didn't think I deserved. Hell, I still don't half the time," he admitted. "But I knew that this time I would do everything in my power to protect you, even if it meant my death, I would do it. I understand why you're angry with me over the Dementors, but Harry, if I do anything to ensure your safety; to save your life — I made the right choice."

"I don't want you to die for me!" Harry exclaimed, his eyes narrowed in anger. "Mum and Dad died for me and… why am I worth it?"

Sirius moved over to his son, gripping his face with his hands. "You are the most important person in my life. You have been since the moment that you were born; before that even, since the moment I learned that I was to be your godfather. I love you more than life itself. I do not want to die, Harry. I want to live a long life. I want to see you grow up. I want to watch you fall in love. I want to stand at your wedding, hold your first child in my arms, and watch you have the life that you deserve. But if at any point I do die and my death is a direct result of you being allowed to have that life, I will not hesitate to die for you. You are too important. Not because of the prophecy. Not because a Seer proclaimed that you're the one destined to kill Voldemort because that's bollocks. We're taking out his Horcruxes one by one and when it comes down to it — he will die. I believe that. But you have to live because you deserve it. You deserve a full and happy life."

"If you die for me, how am I supposed to have a happy life knowing what you gave up for me?"

Sirius gently brushed Harry's fringe away from his face. "Because I love you and I wish you to have nothing but a happy life. I would hope you wouldn't spend your whole life grieving for me."

Harry stared at him for a moment. "Don't die, okay?"

Sirius smiled. "I'll try not to. Same for you, okay?"

Harry nodded, his eyes wide. "I'll try not to, too."

Sirius smiled and leaned in to kiss his son's forehead. "I love you, Pr-Harry." He let out slow breath. "There's something else that I have to tell you and it's going to be very hard for you to hear."

Harry only stared at him.

"I wasn't going to tell you at all, if I'm being honest. In fact, I think telling you will only hurt you, but we agreed to be honest with each other, right?"

"Yes, we did," Harry said, slowly. He didn't like the fact that Sirius had almost decided against telling him. He knew that it couldn't be a good thing. "What is it?"

Sirius sighed. "After your Quidditch match against Ravenclaw, I had a few words with Snape. Let's just say that it didn't go too well, but I realized something. First of all, I never told you this before, but Snape was a Death Eater during the war."

"WHAT?" Harry exploded. "He was a bloody Death Eater! Does Dumbledore know? Why is he letting him teach at the school?"

Sirius held up his hand to stop him from rambling. "Yes, Dumbledore knows. During the war, before things got really bad, before your parents went into hiding — Snape became a spy for Dumbledore. He worked against Voldemort while pretending to still be a loyal follower, at great personal risk to himself."

"Why?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"I told you that Uncle Rem and I went to school with him?" At Harry's nod, he continued. "His best friend in school for many years was your mother."

Harry nodded. "I know, he told me."

"He did?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"Yeah, er, it was really strange, actually," Harry said honestly, scratching his head. "I had detention with him for being out after curfew — we had all snuck up to the Astronomy Tower to spit out our Mandrake leaves, but Ron and I got caught sneaking back up to Gryffindor Tower. He had me copying out detention forms from stuff you and Uncle Remus and Dad did in school — it was kind of entertaining actually — did you really start a Karaoke Dance Party in the staff room once?"

"We did. I think Jamie and I made close to a hundred Galleons on it, too," he said, chuckling at the memory.

"And you only allowed girls in for free if they snogged you?"

Sirius grinned widely. "I snogged twenty-six girls that night. It was great."

"Did you also really propose to McGonagall?"

"Yup," he said on a laugh. "But we can talk about my many adventures another time, Harry. What did Snape say to you?"

Harry blew his hair out of his eyes. "It was really strange because it was just out of nowhere when he suddenly told me that I had my mother's eyes and then he went on to say that they used to be friends. He said that she fell in love with my dad and that he and Dad never saw eye to eye, but he knew that he was good for my mum. He said that both Mum and Dad were really good at Potions and that I was, too, and that he only gave me E's because he knew that I could do better… then he said that my parents would be proud of me and that we weren't to speak of it again."

Sirius nodded, his eyes on his son. "Well, that's interesting to say the least. What did you say to him?"

"I told him that I would try to do better at Potions and he told me to read ahead and that was it."

"Hmm," Sirius said, carefully. He scratched his itchy bearded chin, remembering why he normally shaved down to the stubble and sighed. "Well, as I was saying, Snape and Lily were friends. But in fifth year, they got into a huge fight and he called her a Mudblood. Jamie and I are partly to blame for their fall out. It had been building most of the year as Snape was hanging around with people who had all become Death Eaters and your mother didn't like them nor the influence they had on Snape. Anyway, we were bullying Snape, which I'm not proud of looking back on it, but we were, and we bullied him quite often, actually. This particular time we were embarrassing him by the Black Lake and your Mum tried to get us to stop and he called her a Mudblood. They got into a big fight afterwards and she stopped talking to him. He became a Death Eater sometime after that, I don't know when exactly but…" He let out a slow breath. "Harry, Snape was the Death Eater that overheard the prophecy."

Harry stared at him. "What do you mean? Wait — he's the one who told Voldemort about… me?"

"He didn't know that the prophecy was about you when he heard it," Sirius said, carefully. "Voldemort is the one who put that together and Snape didn't hear the entire prophecy, which is also why Voldemort came after you in the first place."

"He's the… HE KILLED MY PARENTS!" Harry exploded.

Sirius grabbed his arm as Marauder glared up at Harry for disturbing his slumber. "Harry, do you remember when I said that Snape turned spy?" At his son's nod, he sighed. "When he found out that Voldemort was planning on going after the Potters, Snape went to Voldemort and tried to stop him on behalf of his former friendship with Lily. Voldemort refused him, so Snape did the next best thing — he went to Dumbledore. Dumbledore convinced him to turn spy, which he did, and Dumbledore tried to stop the prophecy from coming true by having James and Lily go into hiding with you. Snape regrets his choice every day. I know that. It doesn't make what he did right, but well, he's still trying to make amends for it. When he sees you, I imagine it is a constant reminder to him of what he lost and of what he did."

Harry crossed his arms stubbornly in front of him. "How am I supposed to have him as my teacher knowing what he did?"

"Harry, he saved your life in your first year despite his hatred for your father. Don't get me wrong, I hate that son of a bitch, and I highly doubt my opinion of him is ever going to change, but he has been trying to make amends and… he deserves credit for that. Dumbledore trusts him and as much as I dislike him, I… I trust him, too," Sirius said slowly, looking as if admitting to that fact made him want to throw up his dinner.

Harry stared at him for a long moment. "Is that really everything?"

"Yes," Sirius told him. "Unless you want me to try to give you a detailed daily calendar of my life for the last thirty-four years?"

Harry smirked. "No."

Sirius sobered, letting out a slow breath. "There is one other thing that I'm keeping from you. It's not that I don't trust you with it or that I don't want you to know, but it's like the Horcruxes and the prophecy: It's something that I need to work out for myself before I can share it with you."

Harry stared at him. "But you'll tell me the moment that you do?"

"I promise," he said, sincerely.

Harry smiled at that. "Okay, I can live with that."

Sirius nodded, thinking about the implications of his son's words. That was just it, he thought, Harry was living with it, and he wasn't ready to tell him that. "Good. Harry, I'm sorry about everything. You needed me to be the adult, to be the parent… and I wasn't there for you. Zee told me that I sometimes forget that you're not grown up yet — and she's right. I've trusted you with a lot in the last year and you've proven to be even more amazing than I could ever have hoped for. I know that you're growing up and I know that you're not my little boy anymore, but you're still my teenage son and I need you just as much as you need me. I might need you a little bit more than you need me, if I'm honest."

Harry smiled at him and hugged him tightly. "You've always been there for me, Uncle Siri. You've never let me down and I'm sorry that I made you think you did. It was just… you died and then you didn't die and it was… a lot to take in."

Sirius kissed his cheek, hugging him tightly. "How do you think I felt? I was still trying to wrap my mind around the fall out of Remus being arrested when you started yelling at me and telling me that I had died and… I didn't handle it well. You needed me and I wasn't there for you." He kissed his cheek again. "I love you, but I'm not perfect. Sometimes I make mistakes and I have to learn from them, too."

Harry nodded against Sirius' shoulder. "I'm sorry that I blamed you. I didn't, I mean, I don't blame you. I knew it wasn't your fault. It's just… I was scared."

"Harry, there is nothing to be ashamed about in being scared. I was scared, too, and watching that memory, knowing that because I let my dark thoughts overpower my happy ones, I could have lost you — that scares me. You were right. I needed to tell you about this, I needed to talk about it. I need to heal my mind just as much as you need to heal yours. I'm always telling you how important it is to get things off your chest, to talk about it, and I need to start following my own advice and stop acting like a child. Sometimes, it's hard being the adult."

Harry smiled and hugged him tight before he pulled away. "You should tell Zee, too."

Sirius gently brushed Harry's fringe back away from his face. "Maybe, I will." He framed his son's face in his hands again and kissed his forehead. "Now, I think that we've covered what I needed to tell you so I think that we should get back to this night of the Quidditch Cup win and this intense snog session with someone named Sophie that involved drinking copious amounts of Firewhiskey."

Harry blushed, tugging his face away from his father's hands. "Er, no, I don't think we should."

Sirius merely raised an eyebrow. "You do know that at thirteen you should not be drinking Firewhiskey?"

Harry scrunched his nose. "It was terrible. I don't plan on doing it again."

"Hmm," he said, staring at his son. "If I find out that you've been drinking again, we're going to be having words on the subject and you will be grounded. Are we clear?"

Harry nodded, looking down at Marauder who was still mostly sprawled across his lap. "Yes, Uncle Siri."

"Good," Sirius told him sternly. "Now Sophie, just how intense of a snog was this?"

Harry blushed. "We kissed, okay — what's the big deal?"

"On the lips only?"

The back of Harry's neck flushed darker as he thought about how her hands had slipped into his jeans. "We snogged. She's not my girlfriend and I don't plan on snogging her again."

"Why? Was she not very good?"

"No, she was good, I mean… it was just a one time thing that's all."

"You know, just because I made my way through a few birds doesn't mean that you need to do the same, Harry?"

"Uncle Siri, please stop!" he begged, his face heating in embarrassment. This was the last thing he wanted to be talking about.

Sirius chuckled. "All right, all right, but only because you asked so nicely."

Harry rolled his eyes and Sirius stretched his legs out, putting his feet up on the coffee table. "So, what's in the medicine chest?"

Sirius smiled as his eyes moved over the box. "We'll get to that after. I want to address the Time Turner again."

"Why? You saw my memory, you know what happened."

"Aye, I do," he said carefully. "And I know that it wasn't your decision to use it, but it's the fact that you used such a dangerous item that concerns me. Harry, how much does Hermione's parents know about what she gets up to at school?"

Harry shrugged, looking bewildered at the sudden turn in the conversation. "I don't know. She doesn't talk about her parents much. I know that they were upset when they found out that she had been petrified last year."

Sirius nodded. "I know that they're Muggles and that they're not very well informed on the ways of the magical world, so I imagine that Hermione keeps them a bit in the dark."

"I don't know," Harry admitted.

"Using a Time Turner was a very dangerous thing for Hermione to be risking, not just that one night, but the fact that she was using it every single day for an entire school year. Meddling with time is extremely dangerous, Harry. You are going back in time and even if it is only for a few hours at a time, when you return to the normal time zone, you have become that much older. Hermione essentially lost at least half a year of her life just in time travel."

"She… really?"

"Yes, Harry." Sirius said, seriously. "You don't just get back what you lost, that's not the way that time travel works. She was making each day last longer than twenty-four hours which means that she was living in that borrowed time. Time travelling can be extremely dangerous; that's why it's a subject that is so greatly studied by the Department of Mysteries. It's something that no one truly understands. One wrong step and you can change the entire course of history; wiping out not only yourself, but potentially all of humanity. You could tear a hole in the fabric of time and space and destroy the entire world! Hermione is incredibly lucky that she was so successful using it."

"But it worked great, we went back three hours, we captured Peter, and we saved you!" Harry protested.

Sirius stared at him. "I'm not discounting that, Harry. But the Department of Mysteries is still studying how time travel works. As of right now, they think that travelling more than five hours into the past can cause real potential harm to not only the traveller, but to time itself! There was a case at the turn of the century, a witch named Mintumble travelled back to the year 1402 for five days, but when she returned to her own time, she had aged the five centuries in between and died in the hospital, her body irreparably damaged. Not to mention that her stay in the past altered the course of history to such an extent that some of her descendants actually vanished from her present time because they had been 'un-born' due to her disturbance."

"I get it, Uncle Siri, it was dangerous."

"Dangerous. Reckless. Stupid. Irresponsible. Potentially deadly."

Harry nodded. "I'm sorry."

"I don't want you to apologize, Harry. I know why you did it, and as I am thankful to be here and to be alive, I can't be too upset that you used it, but I want you to understand why I'm concerned with the fact that Hermione was using it for her studies."

"I do."

Sirius tapped his hands on his knee. "And I think that Hermione's parents need to be made aware of what their daughter was up too; they deserve to know, don't you think?"

"Uncle Siri!"

"No," Sirius said, sternly. "I don't like to play the parental card like that, but this is very serious! She could have harmed herself and her parents need to understand, even if they are Muggles and might not completely follow what she was doing."

"But… you'll get her in trouble!"

Sirius stared at his son. "Harry, if you had been the one using the Time Turner and you didn't tell me about it, but I found out that your friend's parents knew, how do you think I'd react to that?"

Harry swallowed. "You'd be angry."

"And?"

"Maybe feel a bit betrayed?"

"Exactly," Sirius told him. "Hermione's parents deserve to know that she was delving into dangerous territory and I don't want to get her into any trouble, but I won't keep this a secret from them. From one parent to another, I won't keep that kind of secret. Do you understand?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Good. We're going to stop by tomorrow morning and speak with them. You can send Hedwig over to let her know we're coming by."

"Okay," Harry said, grudgingly. He knew better than to argue. "I'll send her a letter and let her know that we're coming."

"Good."

"So… what's in the box?" Harry asked again, hoping to change the subject just as much as he was curious.

Sirius tapped the top of the box. "Uncle Rem and I were saving this for your birthday this year, but after speaking with him about us needing to have this talk, we decided that now was the right time to give it to you."

Harry glanced at the box curiously. An early birthday gift was not what he had been expecting. "It's from Uncle Rem, too?"

Sirius nodded. "Yes, it is. We've been working on it for years. We started it back when you were six years old and I debated about waiting to give it to you until your sixteenth or seventeenth birthday, but Uncle Remus and I decided that now is the right time for you to have it. You've really grown up in the last year, Harry, and I think that you're more than ready to handle this gift. Uncle Rem and I wanted to give it to you together, but… he agreed with me that now was the right moment, even though he couldn't be here to give it to you."

Harry stared at the box in wonder. "What is it?"

Sirius smiled at him. "Open it up."

Harry tapped Marauder so that the dog would move and he shifted to the end of the couch, reaching for the box. He carefully opened the latch and lifted the lid. Inside each compartment where medicinal potions would normally have been laid out, sat a glass phial full of silvery-blue liquid. "Are these…?"

"Dumbledore had the Pensieve basin made for you on my behest. It's yours now, which is who I 'borrowed' it from, and yes, each one of those bottles holds a different memory."

"Memories of what?" he asked, his eyes wide and tears in his throat.

He thought he knew, but he was scared to hope for it.

Sirius smiled. "Your parents."

Harry could feel the tears in his throat and he pushed them down, his fingers moving over the bottles. There had to be close to a hundred different phials in there, if not more.

"There's almost a hundred," Sirius said, knowing what was running through Harry's mind. "Most of them belong to Remus and I, but some are from McGonagall, a few from Hagrid, even a few from Snape, though he'll deny that if you ask him about it."

"All of these… what are they about?"

Sirius smiled. "A mix of things. How I first met your parents, how Jamie and I became friends, how Lily and I became friends, some of our great pranks, some of Jamie and Lily's love story, their wedding, the day you were born, memories of us in school, learning how to become an Animagus, telling Uncle Remus that we didn't care that he was a werewolf, some of my past too, and some of the memories of you and me and Uncle Remus over the years. Not all of them are happy, but most of them are."

Harry picked up the phial marked number one. "Do I have to view them in order?"

Sirius shook his head, tugging out the parchment attached to the lid. "Not at all. They are numbered backwards chronologically by memory, so number one is the newest memory and the last one is the earliest memory, and I wrote a little description here of what each memory is. You can watch some of them now; you can watch all of them now or you can wait and watch them when you're ready to, but they are for you to view, Prongslet-Harry. Sorry, I'll get there with the Prongslet name calling."

Harry dropped the parchment on the chest and turned to throw his arms into Sirius'. "This is the greatest gift that you ever could have given me! I don't even… thank you!"

Sirius kissed the top of his son's head. "I love you, Harry. I love you so much and this is a chance for you to see how much your parents truly loved you. I want you to get a chance to get to know them and I know that I've told you a hundred and one stories, but this is different. You can feel the moments with them the way that I did. I want that for you." He kissed him again. "I love you and Uncle Remus loves you more than life and this is how we want to share with you the love that your parents had for each other and for you."

Harry hugged him tighter. "It's perfect, thank you!"

Sirius smiled as Harry pulled away. "I'll leave you to watch some of these then." He stood up, his hand squeezing Harry's shoulder lightly.

Harry grabbed his hand. "No, will you… will you watch them with me?"

Sirius nodded, his eyes wide in surprise. "Yes, I'd like that." He sat back down and gestured to the box of memories. "Where do you want to start?"

Harry stared at the box for a moment and then he picked up a random phial from the box. "I think with this one. I don't know what it is, but it feels like a good one."

"Sure," Sirius told him with a smile. "Do you want to read what the memory is first?"

Harry shook his head. "No. I want to be surprised."

Sirius smiled warmly. "That sounds like a great plan to me."

He watched his son pop open the phial and carefully pour the memory into the Pensieve. Harry nodded at his father and together they lowered their face towards the basin and fell into the memory.

End Author's Notes:

DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Harry Potter wiki for the Time Turner information on the witch Mintumble. Very interesting stuff.

Thank you for reading and please review!