I am going to say it right now – I am absolutely astounded by the response this has gotten! 106 reviews for one chapter?!? I thought I was gonna faint when I saw that! This was a difficult chapter to write, and you have my apologies for the wait – but what with unpacking and jet-lag, this was the quickest I could write it.

Annabeth Furlong – hope everythings better with you, gorgeous:-) Don't let anything get you down, sweetheart, this is for you!

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And, so… Welcome to Year Two everybody!

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Harry James Potter sighed. Today had started out as such a good day too, he thought ruefully. It had started out perfectly, actually. And then he had to blurt out about that stupid broom.

"Are you even listening to me?" A voice cut into his thoughts. Harry looked up to see his godfather looking at him, having stopped his pacing.

In the background, Harry could hear Remus moving around the kitchen, muttering, "Potions… fools… heart… cotton wool…"

Harry suppressed another sigh as he answered 'yes' to his godfathers question. Sirius didn't respond and, when Harry looked up at him once more, he noticed that Sirius was looking at him from where he was standing, nearly right in front of him.

"I don't think you are," Sirius said evenly, after several long moments of nothing but Remus' mutterings about locking Harry in a tall tower to keep him safe.

Sirius suppressed a sigh as he crouched down to be eye-level with his godson. Already taller when they were both standing, since Harry was considerably small for his age, Harry didn't have a chance when he was sitting down. Harry looked slightly surprised at this, expecting to see Sirius start pacing and ranting about telling the truth again. Which was exactly what he had been doing ever since Ron had left… over an hour ago.

"Harry, I don't want you to lie to me, alright," he said, staring at Harry intensely. "I want to be able to trust you."

"Fine," said Harry, crossing his fingers.

Sirius rose an eyebrow and brought Harry's hands together. He uncrossed them and then held them so they were clasped between both of his larger ones. "You wanna try that again?"

Harry blew out a breath and said reluctantly, "Alright, I won't lie."

"Or hold back information," Sirius added firmly, looking his godson in the eyes.

Harry looked at Sirius, exasperated. How did he do that?

"Harry," Sirius said, a warning in his voice.

"Fine," said Harry, even more reluctantly. "I promise not to withhold information either."

"Good boy," said Sirius, standing up and ruffling Harry's hair. "And you can think about that as you spend the next fortnight going to bed at eight thirty."

"What!?" Harry exclaimed.

"You didn't think I was going to let you get away with it, did you?" Sirius asked, eyebrows raised. He was also marveling at himself, having never thought himself to be someone to ground kids or even do any of that responsible stuff. But with Harry, it just seemed natural. Which, though Harry probably didn't agree, was a good thing for him.

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"Eat all of it, Harry," Remus said, when Harry had pushed away his half-eaten plate. "You're far too thin."

Harry rolled his eyes as he pulled the plate back towards him. Remus never let him leave food on his plate, because he insisted that Harry needed to gain weight. He couldn't help but groan when he realized that it would probably be worse when Remus found out about the starvation. Which, he realized with dread, was next.

After all three had finished, Sirius suggested that they move to the dining room so Harry could begin his second year. Harry tried to delay, but Sirius just gave him a look which quietened him immediately.

"So, should we start Harry's second year, then?" Remus asked lightly. He was hoping that this year would be far quieter and wouldn't include as many… shocks as the previous one had.

Wishful Thinking.

"Without leaving anything out," Sirius said pointedly, settling right next his godson on the couch while Remus sat down opposite them on a soft chair that he had levitated there. After making sure Harry was settled in, causing his godson to roll his eyes as he was covered in the blanket once more, Sirius nodded for Harry to continue.

"Well, I don't really know where to start," Harry said, stalling slightly. It wasn't that he didn't know how to start. It was more that he didn't want to start. For goodness sakes, he was already grounded and had an eight-thirty curfew for the next two weeks, who knew what would happen when they found out about the stunts he and Ron had pulled that year?

"What happened when you returned to your… relatives is probably a good place to start," Remus pointed out reasonably, slowly returning to normal after his near heart-attack of before. However, the way he said 'relatives' proved that he was still dead-set on revenge for those who hurt his cub.

Harry winced as he thought about it, making Sirius tense in worry about what could have happened. He hardly noticed that his hands were wringing the blanket that was currently covering his godson as he stared at his little, innocent Pronglet, who was even more innocent back those few years ago and narrowed his eyes at what to do to those idiots that dared say they were related to his precious Pronglet.

"I suppose it didn't start out too bad," Harry started hesitantly. But he figured that if he had to reveal everything, it was better to get it over with. Gather that famous Gryffindor courage of his. The question is, Harry found himself thinking, is where the hell did it go?!?"

"But it got worse," Remus said calmly, the voice of reason once more. Those potions really do help. I wonder if it would be legal to give Sirius the amount of doses he would need to calm down?

"Well, a little bit," Harry admitted. "I suppose it started on my birthday. Uncle Vernon had an important client, so I had to help clean and everything, and, of course, I couldn't bother them while he was over." He was making it seem lighter again.

Sirius once again made a note to spoil Harry on July thirty-first. Maybe he could… experiment on Snape for the entertainment, he mused. Now that was an idea. Or he could turn Dumbledore into a unicorn so they could play pin-the-tail-on-the-unicorn.

"Uh, Sirius?" asked Harry, looking at him, half-hoping that this would give him an opportunity to get away.

"Oh, sorry kiddo, just got carried away thinking about something," Sirius said, smiling cheerfully. "Keep going."

"Right," said Harry, deciding it would be better to just not ask. "So I went up to my room, planning to have a quiet night for my birthday, but then when I got in there, I found a house-elf!"

"A house-elf?" Remus asked incredulously. "What on earth would a house-elf be doing in a muggle home?"

"I didn't even know it was a house-elf at the time," Harry said, snorting. "Then it just started saying something about how I was so noble to have defeated 'He-Who-Must-Not- Be-Named and whatnot."

"Yes, but a house-elf can't just pop in there for no reason," Sirius said. "It has to have orders from his master."

"Unless it doesn't want to listen to those orders," Remus countered thoughtfully. "The thing is, most house-elves would always do what their masters tell them, until the moment that they die. But then you get the rare ones that rebel. I'm guessing that this is the one that went to see Harry," he said, posing it more as a question then as a statement.

"Yeah, except I didn't know it at the time," Harry said, "In fact, Dobby was the one that explained the whole house-elves slave thing."

"Dobby?" asked Sirius with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, that was his name," Harry said in a tone that said it should have been obvious.

"I see," Sirius said slowly. "Well, what else did Dobby say?"

"Er, well, he said that I would be in danger if I went back to Hogwarts," Harry admitted.

"Why?" Sirius asked sharply. He was going into Overprotective Padfoot again, Harry noted with an inward sigh.

"He wouldn't say," Harry said, now complaining, "He just kept on saying that I shouldn't return to Hogwarts but wouldn't tell me why. It was downright annoying."

"He didn't give you any hints?" Remus asked curiously.

Harry shook his head and answered, "Just that 'terrible things would happen'. And then he revealed that he'd been taking my letters!" Harry continued, now sounding indignant.

"He'd been hiding your letters?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah," Harry sighed, "Made my summer downright miserable."

"So what did you answer to Dobby's insistences that you not go back to Hogwarts?" Remus asked, smirking as he realized that Sirius and Dobby would probably be very similar in what they would be saying about Hogwarts when Sirius got going later this summer…

"I couldn't say that I wouldn't go back," Harry said. "Hogwarts is home. I'd go insane with the Dursleys. Seriously, they should make it a punishment instead of sending people to Azkaban."

"And was that that?" Sirius asked, somehow knowing that it would not be that simple.

"No," Harry snorted, "Dobby doesn't take no for an answer."

"Sounds like someone else I know," Remus murmured under his breath, seeing an image of Sirius insisting that it was too dangerous for Harry to return to Hogwarts. An image that Remus knew he was going to be seeing within the next month.

"What do you mean?" asked Sirius, completely clueless of the things going through his best friends head.

"Nothing," Remus replied hastily. He turned to Harry before Sirius could pursue his suspicions and asked, "So, what did he do to try and make sure you didn't go back?"

"He went down and crashed my Aunt Petunia's cake on the guests heads," Harry said lightly, blinking in shock when Padfoot started to laugh.

"Serves them right," Sirius crowed triumphantly.

Remus nodded, also pleased. But he couldn't help but notice that Harry was rather quiet. It might just be a teenage 'sullen fit' from the lecture and punishment from earlier – which, really he had lucked out with. Lily would have been far worse, although, Remus mused, none of this would have happened if Lily had been alive because she would have set the Headmasters beard on fire for even thinking about doing that to her little one.

And James… well, Remus didn't even want to imagine what James would have done if he had been alive. He was always overprotective, though not nearly as much as Sirius currently was, he added wryly. But no, Dumbledore wouldn't have dared let anything happen to Harry if Lily and James had been alive.

"Well, I suppose the image was sort of funny," Harry said hesitantly, "Though not nearly as much as my cousin in his school uniform."

"And what ended up so bad about it?" Remus asked, shaking the image of Dumbledore locked in a broom closet without a wand by an irate James from his head. That does have potential, though. I should tell Padfoot.

"Because Dobby used magic for it," Harry said plainly.

"Of course he did, he's a magical creature," Sirius said, no longer laughing, though his eyes still had a humourous twinkle in them. Harry wished that would stay there but for some strange reason… he really doubted it would. I wonder why, Harry found himself thinking sarcastically.

"Yes, but I lived in a muggle house," Harry reminded Sirius with a sigh.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Sirius asked. "Besides the fact that you weren't meant to be there, of course," he added under his breath.

"The Ministry thought I had done that magic," Harry explained patiently, more then happy to postpone having to tell them about his punishment from that particular incident.

"What!?" Sirius said through gritted teeth, quite differently then his customary bellow.

"They blamed you for it?" Remus asked tightly, anger rising at the unjust ministry once more.

"Er, maybe," Harry said with a brilliant smile.

"Harry, do you really want to get grounded for the rest of summer?" Sirius asked with eyes narrowed.

Harry narrowed his eyes right back and answered, "Alright, yes they bloody blamed me for it."

"Language, Harry," Remus reprimanded at the same time as Sirius said, "Bloody idiots!"

Remus groaned and shook his head. He really couldn't take much more of this, and Harry had barely even started his first year.

Harry, on the other hand, was getting slightly annoyed at getting grounded. Sure, he may be able to convince Sirius to let him fly and everything with those doggy eyes or whatever they were, but he was fifteen, he didn't have to go to bed that bloody early just because he had tried to stop his guardians from having heart attacks. Harry studiously ignored the fact that he had really only ignored that so that they wouldn't become even more protective of him. I wonder if Fred and George have invented anything new…

Harry smiled at the image of his godfather being chased around by one of the twins fake wands.

"And what did the ministry say?" said godfather cut through his thoughts.

"It was just a warning… but it had other repercussions," Harry said, now divulging information reluctantly.

"What sort of repercussions?" Sirius asked softly, seeing that Harry really didn't want to say. Damn Dursleys, making Harry so shy and subdued.

"Well, I hadn't told them that I wasn't allowed to do magic outside of school," Harry explained, realizing he hadn't mentioned this before now.

"A good idea," Remus said.

"Yeah, and it was really funny, I could make Dudley panic by just saying some nonsense words and the Dursleys were terrified of me," Harry said, now sounding happy as he remembered the look on Dudleys face. He didn't know it, but he had The Glint in his eyes. Remus found himself wondering where the innocent child had gone.

Sirius ignored The Glint – something he would later regret – but laughed at the image of Harry scaring his cousin by saying some nonsense.

"Glad to know at least part of that stay was fun," Sirius said brightly, "But what about that letter…" His voice trailed off as he realized what must have happened.

Harry nodded gloomily, "Yeah, they found out from the letter. Uncle Vernon wasn't too happy."

"What did he do?" Remus asked carefully, one hand stilling on a potion placed on the table next to him.

Harry winced and looked down.

"C'mon, kiddo," Sirius coaxed. "What did he do?"

"He and Aunt Petunia didn't want me going back to Hogwarts," Harry admitted.

"And what did he do to try and stop you?" Remus asked, gold beginning to show in his eyes.

"They locked me in my room," Harry said casually. "They figured that if I couldn't send letters or use magic without getting expelled then by locking me in I wouldn't be able to go back to Hogwarts."

"Those…" Sirius burst out, unable to think of words good enough to describe the animals. He couldn't believe that sweet, kind Lily could be related to a woman like Petunia.

"What else did they do," Remus asked, seeing from Harry's demeanour that there was more. He was now holding onto the potions vial.

"They didn't exactly give me a lot of food," Harry said carefully, trying to word it in a way other then 'starved'. It didn't seem to work very well though.

Remus grabbed the potion and sculled it in one gulp while there seemed to be a vein popping in Sirius' head. Harry was actually rather fascinated by it… was that normal?

Sirius was actually speechless. They had starved his godson. They had starved his godson. No wonder Harry never ate, he was probably to scared to thanks to the idiots that took away his childhood, innocence…

Harry was staring at Sirius in concern, not even noticing when Remus slipped out. His godfather was pacing and muttering something.

Then something was pushed into his hands and looked up, startled, to see Remus above him and pushing a huge plate full of food into his hands with a look that quite clearly said, 'eat it!'

Sirius nodded approvingly and said in a would-be calm voice, "Excuse me for a moment."

He walked out of the room sedately and Harry felt slightly awkward at all the banging, crashing and cursing he heard from the other room… for the next half an hour.

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That was horrible. Please tell me what you thought, even if you just want to say it's the worst thing you've ever read.

Next time… wait and see! Will be quicker!