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"I think you could do with some more sleep." Sirius said as Harry came downstairs, rubbing his eyes with both his hands. Harry smiled when he saw his godfather, just the way he did every morning. He still didn't have words to describe how happy he was to have someone as brilliant as Sirius as his godfather. "I guess so." He said sheepishly, knowing that Sirius was right.

After breakfast, Harry was going through another album that Sirius had shown him. "I love that one." said Sirius. The two of them were sitting on the floor, doing absolutely nothing but enjoying themselves. In the picture, Sirius was asleep on the sofa with baby Harry asleep in his chest. The one year old had Sirius's shirt firmly captured in his tiny and chubby fist and his hair was adorably messy. Sirius had his arms wrapped around Harry protectively.

Flashback:

"Now darling, we'll be back soon." Lily said as she placed a kiss on the small tuft of black hair that was exactly like James' who had Harry settled on his hip. She and James were going to visit her parents today and Sirius had agreed to watch Harry so, they were currently in Black Manor, to drop him there. "James, we're going to be late if we don't leave now." She said as she watched her husband playing with their son. "You be good for Padfoot ok? Mummy and Daddy will be back in the evening." Said James as he placed Harry in Sirius's arms.

"Pafoo! Pafoo!" Harry cried out, reaching out to Sirius. "Yes puppy, that's it. You and I are going to have so much fun together. Let your boring daddy leave." Said Sirius sticking his tongue out at James. "Mr. Prongs asks Mr. Padfoot to not turn his son against him otherwise Mr. Padfoot will not like the consequences." Said James with mock solemnity. "Mr. Padfoot would like to tell Mr. Prongs that he will do as he pleases and there is nothing that Mr. Prongs can do about it." Sirius replied, unable to hide the smile in his voice. Lily simply smiled at the playful banter that took place between them so often. "You're sure about doing this right?" Asked James, glancing at his best friend for the umpteenth time. Sirius rolled his eyes at him. James trusted Sirius a lot and he did trust him to take care of Harry but then the fatherly concern was also understandable. Sirius gave James a reassuring smile. "We'll be fine Prongs. Now you two should leave before Mrs. Evans calls you out for being late." Said Sirius, shifting Harry to a more comfortable position.

The two Potters left after saying goodbye, leaving Sirius alone with his godson. "So it's just the two of us now pup?" Asked Sirius as he carried Harry over to his high chair and sat him down. He fed Harry first during which Harry made sure to throw food around the house and he managed to spill some on himself too. Had some other child done this, Sirius would've probably been annoyed but he only smiled down at his beloved godson and said: 'Let's get you cleaned up shall we?"

He picked Harry up and took him upstairs. Sirius took off Harry's clothes and lowered him into the bathtub. For an infant, Harry had a tremendous amount of energy. He splashed about vigorously, successfully soaking Sirius in the process.

After both of them had a fresh set of clothes on, Sirius tried to get Harry to sleep a little but the baby was anything but sleepy. "Pay! Pafoo pay!" Was all that he kept saying.

"You want to play?" Harry nodded enthusiastically. Sirius smiled down at his godson. "Alright. Let's go to your room." Harry spent a lot of his time in Sirius's house so his godfather had set up a room for him to play in. It had all the toys a child would want and a small playpen as well.

Harry played around the room, taking small, baby steps. "That's it puppy. Come on! You can do it." Said Sirius as he stood a little away from Harry and held his hands out for Harry to take. The toddler staggered a little but he took the steps. Once Harry had reached him, Sirius bent down and scooped him up, gently tossing him up and catching him.

Harry played with his rattles, banging them on the floor or swinging them around or just chucking them across the room. Sirius made sure that he didn't put anything in his mouth as he played. Later, Sirius transformed into Padfoot and played with his godson, as it was Harry's favourite way to play. After playing for a while, Sirius read Harry a story. He sat in his godfather's lap, listening to what he could. Although Harry didn't understand the story, he still tapped the pictures energetically whenever he found any of them interesting or appealing.

By the end of the story, Harry yawned so hard that this eyes became all scrunched up. "I guess it's nap time now." He took Harry to the living room and sat down, rubbing his godson's back slowly. Slowly Harry's breathing became heavy and as Sirius started to lay him down, the infant gripped his godfather's shirt in his tiny fist, refusing to let go. Smiling tenderly at this, Sirius settled down on the couch and wrapped his arms around his godson. In no time at all, even he was asleep. That was how James and Lily found them when they returned.

"You were an absolutely adorable baby, Harry." Said Sirius as he ran his hand through Harry's hair. His godson smiled back at him shyly, blushing at the praise. Sirius's eyes brightened up suddenly. "Come with me. I want to show you something." Sirius got up and offered Harry his hand which the boy took.

The two of them went upstairs to a part of the house where Harry had never gone before. It's not like he didn't want to but it's just that the house was so huge that he hadn't explored that section yet. They stopped in front of a door and Harry looked up at his godfather with curiosity and confusion but Sirius only smiled back at him gently.

Sirius opened the door and gestured for Harry to go in. Harry's jaw all but hit the ground when he stepped in. It was a playroom. The same one that Sirius had just told him about. It had everything intact. Harry had never seen so many soft toys in his life. There was a lion, a unicorn, dinosaur, a stag, a black puppy and even a little wolf. There was even a disfigured rat with its stuffing all torn that was lying in a corner. Other than that, there was a playpen that had little animals on it and there so many other toys and action figures. "You used to play over here so often. You refused to leave so Lily and to put you to sleep sometimes right here."

Harry took in all this information and tried to control the tears that were threatening to spill. After living with Sirius, and listening to all the stories that his godfather had told him, his parents had become more and more real instead of just an album of pictures. Unable to hold it back any longer, a small sniffle escaped his throat.

Sirius glanced down at Harry with concern. Had he done the wrong thing by showing Harry all this? He opened his mouth, to say something comforting but before he could, Harry turned and buried his face into his godfather's robes. "I'm glad you took me in Sirius. I love you." Although his words were muffled, Sirius had no trouble understanding the words. Those two sentences tugged at Sirius's heartstrings. "I love you too pup. More than you can imagine."

"Pup, would you like to go out tonight?" Asked Sirius, out of the blue. It had been quite some time since the two of them had gone out and Sirius wanted to make good use of every opportunity that he got to make sure that Harry was totally comfortable with him. Harry had warmed up to him a lot but there were still moments where Harry flinched at his touch. There were times he looked at Sirius with fear in his eyes while there were instances where Harry would back away from him. Sirius knew well enough that his godson would take a considerable amount of time to heal completely and he would wait patiently. But that didn't mean that he would sit back and do nothing.

"Yes please." Harry replied, looking really happy.

That evening, Sirius took Harry out to muggle London. Only this time, they didn't go shopping. Instead, Sirius took Harry to watch a movie. He had been astonished when Harry had shamefacedly told him that he had never been to watch a movie before. He had asked Harry to go and get ready before he went onto his own room and let loose a string of curses and punched the wall as hard as he could.

They watched a movie that revolved around werewolves and vampires in which Harry had to explain to his godfather that they weren't actual werewolves in the movie and that the vampires were unreal as well. After that, Sirius and Harry went to a restaurant, both of them feeling ravenous.

"So what would you like?" Asked Sirius, observing Harry's reaction. There it was again. Harry's eyes darted around nervously, looking everywhere but at Sirius. He was once again back to his former nervous self. "Anything is f-fine." He replied. Back to stuttering. "Oh come on pup. Surely you can do better than that." Said Sirius, giving Harry his best reassuring smile. "Go on. Choose whatever you want."

"Cheeseburger please?" Harry asked uncertainly. Sirius's smile widened and he nodded. "Of course pup. Cheeseburger it is. You can also have a milkshake after that. Andy said that you need to gain more weight."

The waitress came to take their orders. "What can I get you?" She smiled at Harry sweetly but then she turned to Sirius and batted her eyelashes flirtatiously. "And what can I do for you?" She twirled a loose strand of hair between her fingers and smiled at him. However, this smile was very different from the one she had just given Harry. "A double cheeseburger with a chocolate milkshake and a Spaghetti Bolognese. That'll be all for now. Thank you." He shot her a charming smile and watched as her cheeks coloured. "Of course." The waitress tripped over herself slightly as she went to get the order. Harry watched all this, confusion taking over his mind. Why's had that lady blushed so furiously!

She came back with their orders and gave Sirius another flirty smile as she set their dishes down on the table. Sirius of course reciprocated it with a suave expression and obviously, she blushed once more. They were eating when Harry's curiosity got the better of him. "Sirius, why did that lady blush so much?" Asked Harry innocently as he ate. "Did she now? I didn't notice at all." Sirius replied casually, although he was laughing really hard in the inside. Wait till Harry grew up a little. The expression on his fave would then be priceless.

After dinner, they went back home where Harry all but fell asleep on Sirius. "I think it's time you went to bed pup." Said Sirius, chuckling as Harry yawned widely once more. Harry was barely aware of his godfather's arm supporting him as the went upstairs so that he didn't fall over himself. He sleepily got into his pyjamas as Sirius pulled back the covers and he climbed in. "Goodnight pup. Love you." Said Sirius, placing a kiss on Harry's crown. "Love you too." Harry whispered sleepily.

As his godson fell asleep with a contented smile on his face, Sirius thought that maybe everything was alright. At that time, he didn't know how wrong he was to think that way.

Seven year old Harry Potter had been washing the dishes all afternoon and his little arms were feeling extremely weary and he was totally worn out. If only he could sit down for just a minute. He dismissed that thought immediately. His aunt and uncle had taken him in despite all his freakiness. Sitting about lazily was no way to repay the hardworking family who tolerated his abnormality.

He picked up a porcelain dish and was about to put it in the sink and clean it when his arms gave way and it fell and smashed. Fear gnawed at his heart. Nothing he did now would take him away from the beating that was about to come. He dropped to the ground and began to pick up the pieces as quickly as he could but it was too late. "You clumsy little freak! How dare you!" Harry's head shot up to see his aunt striding towards him, her face contorted in anger. Before Harry knew what was going on, the Dursley matriarch yanked Harry up by the front of his shirt and delivered one sharp slap across his left cheek. Harry cried out in pain only to get another slap. "I-I'm s-sorry Aunt P-Petunia. I'm s-sorry." He sobbed.

"Clean this up. NOW!" She barked. Harry did as told, trying to stem the tears that were flowing down his face. After he had done that, she roughly grabbed him by the elbow and shoved him into the cupboard underneath the stairs. "You wait! I'll have your uncle deal with you once he's home." She slammed the door on his face and left him sobbing.

Harry drew his knees up to his chest and curled himself up as small as he could. Aunt Petunia's warning rung in his ears. He hoped against hope that Uncle Vernon would not use the belt but that would never happen. His uncle came home and he was yanked out of his cupboard. "We give you food to eat and a place to stay and this is how you repay our generosity! By tainting this place with your freakiness! He bellowed, his face red with rage. And then the beating began.

Harry lost count of how many times the belt made contact with his back. He had learned long ago not to cry for mercy. The last thing that he remembered was being thrown into his cupboard. He sat there, trying to nurse his wounds as best as he could, hoping for the millionth time that some relative of his would come and take him away.

The scene shifted and he found himself back at Black Manor. Sirius walked into the room, a cold and unemotional look on his face. "You're absolutely no good. Nothing more than a freak. A terrible disappointment. I'd rather not waste my time with you here. Pack up and leave. There's no place for you in this house."

"S-Sir-" Harry began slowly, his voice fearful when Sirius grasped his chin none too gently. "Not another word. Leave. Now."

This was so much more worse than the flashback he had just had. The only man who he looked up to as a father had just rejected him. He was orphaned once more.

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Sirius, who had been sitting in his study, looking at some letters that had arrived was jolted by the screams coming from Harry's room. He threw his quill down and raced upstairs. Sirius had thought that he knew what kinds of nightmares Harry had but he was totally unprepared for what he saw now.

"SIRIUS! I'm s-sorry! P-Please d-don't make me l-leave."

Never in his dreams had Sirius expected this. He was in his godson's nightmares? "Harry, sshh. It's alright. You're okay." He pinned Harry's arms down to stop the boy from thrashing around and held them there till the thrashing stopped. "Open your eyes pup. It's me, Sirius." He hoped that his words would calm Harry down and was glad when Harry blinked his eyes open.

"P-Please S-Sirius, I don't w-want to go back." The words were a knife to his heart. "Ssh Harry. You're okay and you're not going anywhere." He hugged Harry to his chest and sat down. "What did you see Harry?" He asked, making sure to keep his voice calm and soothing. His godson stiffened at the question. "It's okay, you can tell me about it. I won't get angry."

Harry looked at Sirius, searching for any traces of anger. When he found nothing but love and concern, he took a deep breath and began, trying to keep his voice steady. "I w-was with my aunt and u-uncle and I was seven at that time. I was... washing dishes w-when... one of them b-broke..." Harry told Sirius about what had happened at the Dursleys but didn't speak about the latter half of the dream. "What happened after that?" Sirius's voice made Harry realise that his godfather knew that there was more to his dream.

"Y-You told me... told m-me to g-go away. You c-called ... called me a d-disappointment and a f-freak." Harry didn't raise his voice more than a whisper but Sirius heard it nonetheless.

Sirius drew in a sharp breath at Harry's words. He most certainly hadn't expected this. "Puppy, that was just a dream. I'd never ever say any of those things to you pup. I'm proud of who you are and that's that. Harry, I think I had made it clear to you when you arrived that you're not leaving. I'm not going to send you away so you need to stop worrying about all this. We're family."

"You promise?" Harry asked softly, eyes pleading with Sirius to say yes. "I promise." Sirius replied while mentally swearing to himself that he would get rid of every trace of insecurity Harry had. "Why don't you try to go back to sleep now?" He asked as he got up and straightened Harry's sheets.

"Okay." Said Harry. The dream had seemed so real. When Sirius had woken him up, he had thought that the man had come to kick him out. He had been so afraid of going back, so afraid of leaving the only family that he had but his godfather's reassurance had calmed his fears.

Despite all his fears, somewhere deep down inside, he knew that Sirius meant all of what he had just said. Something told him that he had at last, found a family. One that would love him forever.