Hope everything's good with you, Annabeth :-)

And also a very Happy 18th Birthday to the French Dark Lord. :-)

--------Last time on Reactions---------

Sirius 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.

--------The Second Part of the Second Year of Reactions----------

Harry moodily poked at his food with a fork, under the watchful eyes of his two wonderful guardians, Remus and Sirius. Sirius had finally returned to the room after venting his anger, a rather manic gleam in his eye and a piece of parchment and self-inking quill in hand as he scribbled on the parchment. Harry didn't even want to know what was on that parchment.

Probably ways to turn Dumbledore into a goat, Harry thought randomly, not realizing that this was, in fact, one of the many options on the parchment.

"Why don't we continue the story," Harry said hopefully. He really didn't want to eat anymore and got the feeling that he was soon going to be force-fed, particularly if they talked to Madam Pomfrey or Mrs Weasley who he knew were constantly talking about how underweight, thin, and malnourished he was. Note to self; Do not leave Sirius or Remus alone with Mrs Weasley. Ever.

Remus eyed the food left on the plate appraisingly, still not fully pleased with the amount that Harry had eaten. However, he did want to hear the rest of the story and so nodded silently. He flicked his wand at the plate as he once more sat down on the sofa in front of the couch.

Sirius finished a sentence on his parchment and put it into the drawer and locked it – it wouldn't do for his innocent little Pronglet to see it – and then sat down on the couch, putting an arm around his godson and putting his feet on the table in front of him.

It was a mark of how preoccupied Remus was that he didn't tell Sirius off for it.

After a few moments of silence, Sirius prompted his godson with a "So…"

Harry blinked and said, "Right, sorry." He didn't sound it all.

"Anyway, I was stuck in my room for a few days," he said, not quite as lightly as he had previously, as now all the memories had been dug up. Sirius tightened his arm around Harry comfortingly.

"Then, on the third day, I thought I was hallucinating," Harry said, lightly once more. "I woke up to see Ron, Fred and George hanging out my window!"

"Er, just how were they managing that?" Remus asked, looking startled and almost cautious as he braced himself. After having confiscated a Dung Bomb, a Doxy, a fire-cracker, gum, and Exploding Noisecrackers all on the first class that he had had the twins, he had come to expect that the Weasley twins had many, many tricks up their sleeves.

"They were in a flying car," Harry said, remembering the memory with quite a lot of detail considering it had been so long ago.

"So, you got in with your trunk and flew away with them, right?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"Not quite," Harry admitted. "For one thing, there were the bars on the window – '

"What bars?!?!" Sirius nearly yelled, making Harry, who happened to be right next to him, wince slightly from the noise.

"Didn't I mention those?" Harry asked, slightly guardedly.

"No," Remus said with forced calm, in between taking large gulps of the strange potion next to him.

"Oh, well there were bars on the window – oh, and there was a cat flap as well, that was so they could give me food," Harry added, having forgotten this small fact in the grand scheme of things. After all, having had barely any food for quite a while – even before he had been locked up the portions had been meager – he hadn't been feeling well at all and it was no surprise that his memory was slightly fuzzy.

Sirius was practically hyperventilating by now and ranting under his breath, "He abused my godson. Bloody child abuser. My little, innocent Pronglet…"

Sirius is definitely not sane, Harry decided with a raised eyebrow. Oh well, I have one sane guardian, that's enough. But then again…

Harry turned to Remus and saw that his former Defense Professor was eyeing the potion he now held in his hand contemplatively. However his thoughts were cut off by a huge bear hug from said insane godfather.

Should I give some to Sirius? Remus wondered, turning the potion over several times in his hand. There was no denying that Sirius could use it, preferably before he managed to smother Harry with his hugs. But, Remus decided, now clutching the bottle protectively to his chest, I need it more.

"S'rus, m'fine now," came Harry's muffled voice.

Sirius didn't answer, but loosened his grip on his godson slightly. You may be fine, but the Little Pronglet Abusers won't be, was the vindictive thought going through his head as he smoothed down Harry's hair, something he had taken to doing when Harry had nightmares.

"Alright, Harry, why don't you continue," Remus said, gentle and calm once more but with a raging fire in his eyes. He wanted to hear that Harry had gotten away with the Weasley's, had a wonderful summer and got his revenge on the Precious Cub Abusers.

Sirius nodded in agreement and finally let go of Harry, though not completely. He leant back on the couch and put his arm around his godsons shoulders.

"Right, well… where was I?" Harry wondered out loud.

"Oh, that's right," Harry said hastily, so as to make sure that Sirius and Remus didn't go on more tangents about abusers. "Fred, George, Ron, and the flying car. Well, Fred and George managed to get rid of the bars and then they snuck inside and picked all the locks to get my trunk and everything."

"I knew I liked those twins," said Sirius in a satisfied tone of voice.

Remus nodded in agreement, although they played (or, more specifically, attempted to play) many pranks during his years of teaching, he had taken an immediate liking to him. Perhaps because they represented the marauders in a way, constantly trying to cheer people up with pranks and laughter, and closer then close. But also without the betrayal that ended up ruining the marauders friendships. After all, if you couldn't trust your twin, who could you trust?

Harry snorted and replied, "I'm not surprised you do, after all, they are known as the second generation of marauders."

"Yes, Minerva mentioned that several times," Remus said, rather wistfully. He still missed teaching.

"So, the twins – and Ron, of course – got you away safely?" Sirius prompted, making a mental note to thank them profusely when he saw them again.

"Sort of," said Harry slowly, trying to recall all the images of that day. Really only three things seriously stood out from that day; the huge headache he had had from lack of nutrients, Ron's face in between the bars and his relatives faces as he flew away.

"Oh, that's right, after the twins got my trunk and everything and we were nearly ready to go, Hedwig screeched and woke my aunt and uncle up," Harry said, remembering in more detail as he dragged the memory from his mind, something that he had never actually done before, preferring to keep it hidden.

Sirius threw a scathing look at his godson's owl, who was on a porch near the corner of the room. Hedwig just stared back at him, ruffling her feathers and looking affronted.

Harry, oblivious to the exchange between his pet and godfather, continued, "Obviously, it woke up the Dursleys but I managed to get away in time, even with Uncle Vernon trying to stop me," Harry said this lightly, but even he couldn't mask a slight bitterness against his so-called relatives. Sirius, Remus, and the Weasley's were more like family then they would ever be.

"I think I may have kicked him as well," Harry added thoughtfully.

"Well, if you did, it served them right, the Little Pronglet Abusers," Sirius said, giving Harry a slight squeeze and not noticing the slight rise of Harry's eyebrows.

"So, now that you're away from those stupid, idiotic, moronic relatives of yours," Remus said almost happily and showing an uncharacteristic amount of vindictiveness, making Sirius wonder if there were any side effects of that potion. "I'm curious to know how on earth Fred, George and Ron managed to get a hold of a flying car."

"Speaking of which, I wonder whatever happened to my old motorbike," Sirius said thoughtfully, remembering his old, beloved machine. However, he snapped out of these thoughts a moment later and said, "Never mind, I'll find out about it later. How did they manage to get a hold of that car? You have no idea how long it took me to get my bike done."

"It was Mr Weasley's," Harry answered, thankful that for once there was a question with a simple answer.

Remus blinked in slight surprise – not as much as he would have normally, but with all the Death Eaters, three-headed dogs, and meddling fools that called themselves Headmasters, it was harder to get him surprised.

"Erm, isn't Mr Weasley the Head of the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts?" Remus asked, recalling an article he had read several years ago.

"Yep," Harry said, hoping that the simple questions with easy answers would continue.

"Wouldn't that mean that he would be breaking his own laws?" Remus asked, now slightly confused.

"Actually, according to Mrs Weasley, he made sure that there were loopholes in the law when he wrote it," Harry answered, sounding relatively amused.

"I always wondered where Ron got his rule-breaking tendency from," Remus murmured.

"Anyway, we're getting off topic," Sirius said, wanting to hear the rest of the story so that his fears were put to bay. After all, nothing worse then what had happened in Harry's first and fourth years could have happened in his second year, right?

Right?????

Unfortunately, the only way he could get that answer was by Harry telling him the story, and so far it wasn't looking like the answer he wanted to get.

"Right," said Harry, not minding continuing the story for perhaps the first time that day.

"So, we flew to The Burrow, getting there around about when the sun rose," Harry narrated.

"Let me guess, you got caught by Mrs Weasley," Sirius asked, sounding amused.

"How did you know that?" Harry asked, looking up at his godfather, surprised.

"Because with seven kids, Molly's bound to have a few tricks up her sleeve, and I'm sure she would notice that three of her children were missing. Merlin knows your grandmother could do it plenty of times with me and your Dad," Sirius explained to him, slight wistfulness in his eyes.

Harry nodded silently, feeling a slight pang as he remembered his deceased father. Sometimes, it was hard to imagine that his Dad had actually once lived, played Quidditch and gone to school just as he once had. But that was perhaps the most brilliant thing about living with Sirius and Remus, aside from having guardians that actually cared. They made his parents seem more alive, more then just the people that had died for him.

"So, how long did Molly rant?" Remus prodded, trying to keep the mood lighter and not depressed.

Harry snorted, returning his thoughts back to re-telling his second year without killing his guardians, being smothered to death or grounded for the rest of eternity. "Ages. It was mainly at Fred and George though, and a little bit at Ron. She didn't yell at me at all."

"Of course not, it wasn't your fault!" Sirius exclaimed, sitting up slightly as he scrutinized his godson.

"Yeah, I know," Harry said, avoiding his godfathers eyes. He had already had several long talks about feeling guilty about things (mainly Cedric's death) and he had absolutely no desire to repeat any of them.

"Anyway, so after Mrs Weasley finished yelling, we ate breakfast and then she told the twins and Ron that they had to de-gnome the garden," Harry said, the memory slightly clearer now. "Since I had never seen that happening, I went with them to help."

"That was sweet of you, especially since you must have been absolutely exhausted," Sirius said, pressing kiss to his Harry's head.

Harry shrugged and just continued, "Well, we de-gnomed the garden, had quite a lot of fun, actually. Then Mr Weasley got back."

"And he lectured you as well?" Remus asked, not knowing the answer as he didn't know Arthur as well as he knew Molly.

"Actually, he asked us if it went well," Harry said with a laugh.

Sirius laughed as well, "That does sound like Arthur!"

"So nothing else really happened that summer?" Remus asked, rather cautiously. He didn't think that anything else had happened but Remus was quickly learning that with Harry James Potter, you never really knew.

"Er, I don't think so," Harry answered, wracking his brain for what had happened.

"So everything was peaceful at the Weasleys?" Remus asked, prodding for information.

"Yeah, it was great, we played Quidditch in the field, and mucked around and everything," Harry said enthusiastically. Though that summer had started out as his worst, it had ended up turning into one of his best; only beaten by this one.

"What about when you went shopping for your school supplies?" Remus asked, sounding pleased from all the answers so far. Sirius was also pleased – it seemed his fears were unfounded.

"Shopping," said Harry, but then his face fell. "Ah damn, I forgot about that. Do I have to?" he almost whined.

"Yes," Sirius said, sighing as he thought, Spoke too soon.

"Really?" Harry asked, half pleading.

"Yes," Sirius answered again, rubbing Harry's arm slightly with his own that was still slung over his godsons shoulder.

"It can't be that bad," Remus said brightly, not sounding at all confident or sure of himself.

"Well, we were going to floo to Diagon Alley," Harry explained, "And I had never done it before, so Ron went before me. Then when it was my turn, I must have coughed on the soot or something."

"What?" Sirius asked, sounding a little panicked.

Remus was eyeing his potion again. He had the feeling he might need it.

"I ended up in some store," Harry said, casually, and Sirius could feel that Harry was slightly tense.

And he soon figured out why. Or, at least, part of the reason why. "Harry," he said slowly, "There are no fireplaces in any of the stores in Diagon Alley."

Harry ducked his head and mumbled something incoherent.

"Could you repeat that?" Remus asked forcefully, not wanting to believe what he thought that Harry had said. Sirius just looked at this godson, wishing that he could have the heightened hearing that Remus had.

"I sort of… ended up… in… Knockturn Alley," Harry admitted, head still ducked, and voice barely a whisper.

"What do you mean, Knockturn Alley," Sirius said in a deathly whisper.

"Um, Borgin and Burkes store in that place," Harry admitted.

"Harry James Potter, please tell me that you got out of there," Sirius said, knowing that it really wasn't Harry's fault that he had ended up in that place. But just the image of his little, innocent green-eyed godson in that absolutely horrible place…

Remus was nodding emphatically to Sirius' statement. He could just imagine the horrible things that someone would do to his cub if they found him in Knockturn Alley.

"Well, no," Harry said, highly hesitant to admit it, and with good reason to as Sirius immediately gave him The Look. So, he hastily added, "But I did try!"

"What stopped you?" asked Sirius, no longer giving Harry The Look now that he knew that Harry didn't intentionally stay and put himself in danger.

"I was walking out," Harry explained, also more relaxed when he realized that Sirius wasn't going to blow up about Knockturn Alley. Then again, Harry thought, seeing the stormy anger in his godfather's eyes, Maybe that's not quite true.

"When I ran into Draco Malfoy and his father," Harry said, continuing smoothly from where he left off.

"What?" Sirius hissed. Knockturn Alley, Borgin and Burkes, and the Malfoy's? And his poor godson probably hadn't known what on earth had been going on. He made a mental note to never, ever let Harry floo on his phone. They could apperate… or something. Just not the floo, if anything like that happened his godson again… And he also figured that portkeys were not a good idea either, as Harry hated them and was also most likely scared of them ever since the third task.

Realizing that Harry was still talking, he tuned back into the conversation, and also gave Harry a brief hug.

"…selling something while Draco was looking around at the products," Harry was saying.

"What was Lucius selling?" Sirius asked, trying not to think too hard about his naïve, little godson in the same room with a Death Eater and a man who was as good as a Death Eater. Judging by the incredibly tight grip he had on his godson's hand, it wasn't working to well.

"I don't know, they never said," Harry answered. "All Malfoy mentioned was that he had a few 'items' that he didn't want found by the Ministry in one of the raids that they had apparently set up."

"I heard about those," Remus said, "And I'm not surprised Malfoy was worried. He was most likely at the top of the list."

"Most probably, but I'm more curious to know if you got out of there safely," Sirius interjected impatiently.

"Yeah, I did," Harry said, letting out a small sigh of relief when Sirius' grip lessened at this answer. "I left the store after the Malfoy's, and Mr Borgin left, and then I was lucky enough to run into Hagrid and he led me back to Diagon Alley."

Sirius smiled widely in relief, mentally making a note to not punish Hagrid that bad for the dragon and also vowing to thank Hagrid for getting Harry out of there before something really bad happened.

Remus was thinking the same, and also had a highly relieved look on his face. He also thumped his heart a few times, just to make sure it was still beating.

"So, you met up with the Weasleys, right?" Sirius asked, staring at Harry.

"Yep, and Hermione as well," Harry said happily.

"Good," Sirius murmured, relaxing into the couch once more. "Good."

"Well, nothing really big happened after that," Harry said. "Oh, except that Gilderoy bloody Lockhart had a book signing at Flourish and Blotts."

The tone in which he said this was so unlike Harry that Sirius rose an eyebrow and said dryly, "You really don't like him, do you?"

"And watch you're language," Remus added, slightly sternly.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"So, what happened with this Lockhart character? What has he written, anyway?" asked Sirius, realizing that he had never actually heard of Gilderoy Lockhart.

"I believe he wrote several books about Defense Against the Dark Arts," Remus said, frowning thoughtfully. "I never read them myself though."

"Lucky you," Harry said wryly, "They were horrible, and we had to buy the whole set of them for Hogwarts."

"Were they really that bad?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Yes," said Harry, sounding annoyed, "And Lockhart was even worse. Thought that he was the important and famous person on the entire planet."

"Was he really that bad?" asked Sirius, sounding relatively amused. He didn't think that he'd ever seen anyone get such an amusing reaction from Harry. The boy was practically whining!

"Yeah, and then a reporter steps on Ron's foot, which makes Lockhart notice me and then he just grabs me and practically forces me to take a bloody picture with him. And then he adds that he's going to be the bloody Defense teacher!" Harry ranted, completely forgetting about his audience.

"Were you hurt?" asked Remus, eyes slightly narrow and with a gold tint.

"Not really, just incredibly annoyed," Harry answered, leaning back into the couch.

Sirius had already put Lockhart on his list for making his Harry feel uncomfortable in public and had the feeling that he would most likely get plenty of reasons. Harry didn't speak like that about someone that merely irked him.

"You got away, yes?" Remus asked, watching Harry carefully.

"Yeah," Harry answered, nodding. "Not without the entire collection of Lockhart books free of charge, though," he added, slightly bitterly.

Sirius scowled once more.

"The next part was funny, though," Harry said, brightening up some.

"Really?" Remus asked, relaxing into his own chair and smiling at Harry.

"Yeah, we ran into Malfoy again," Harry began, but was cut off by Sirius.

"Kiddo, I don't see how that is a good thing," Sirius said wryly.

"That's because you didn't let me finish," Harry said. "So, we ran into Malfoy. And then he started insulting Mr Weasley because Ginny's books were second-hand and stuff. They ended up having a huge fight right in the middle of the store. Store manager wasn't too pleased, and neither was Malfoy for that matter."

Sirius laughed whole-heartedly, wishing he could have seen it. He wouldn't have expected that mild-mannered Arthur would do something like that.

"Nice to hear," Remus conceded, smiling.

"And now," Harry said, slightly dramatically, "I have something that both of you are going to love to hear."

"Oh?" Sirius said, smiling.

"Yep. The rest of the summer was completely trouble-free."

"Really?" Sirius asked, hardly daring to believe it.

"Yep," Harry said, nodding.

"So then what happened on the train to Hogwarts?" asked Remus, smiling at Harry's youthful exuberance.

Harry's eyes widened slightly as he remembered that small disaster. "Er, about that…"

"What on earth could have gone wrong on the Hogwarts Express?" Sirius asked in disbelief.

"Nothing went wrong with the train… it's just that Ron and I couldn't get past the barrier. And since we had been running late, Ron and I were the last ones to try to get through…" Harry trailed off, but his guardians got the gist of it.

Remus rubbed his forehead and said in a slightly pleading tone, "Please tell me you used Hedwig to send a letter to the school."

Harry grinned sheepishly and said, "Well… not quite."

Sirius closed his eyes for several seconds and then asked, "What did you do?"

"Well, see, Ron had the idea to… erm… take the car and fly it to Hogwarts," Harry admitted, the second part of his sentence quiet and making Sirius strain to hear it.

"You WHAT???" Sirius blew up, looking faint.

Harry winced and, looking down, said, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Sirius just shook his head in disbelief. "A flying car. A bloody flying car. What on earth were you thinking?????"

"What happened?" Remus asked, weakly. There was still a slight chance that maybe Molly had appeared and told them off for trying or something…

"Well, we got into the car and everything and we took off smoothly, it was just the Invisibility Booster that was playing up," Harry said, trying to make it sound as safe as possible.

"Still, why on earth would you fly a car to Hogwarts," Sirius ranted, jumping up and pacing as he lectured his godson. "You have an owl, why didn't you just write to someone, anyone! Or you could have waited at the car for Molly and Arthur…"

"I know," Harry said, sighing slightly. He really didn't find it fair that he was getting lectured about this nearly three years after it had happened.

"Sirius, perhaps you should stop so we can find out what happened afterwards," Remus interrupted quietly after a few minutes. He had been hyperventilating slightly, but had managed to return his breathing to normal. For now, at any rate.

Sirius stopped and nodded once, sitting back down on the couch but not before saying sternly, "Don't think that I'm finished with this, Harry James."

Harry nodded, wincing when he realized that the lecture would be that much worse when they found out about the landing.

"So, did you get to Hogwarts safely?" Sirius finally ventured to ask after several minutes of silence where everybody refused to speak up.

Wincing again, and knowing that there really was no way to avoid this Harry said, "Sort of… See, we kinda crashed into the Whomping Willow when we tried to land…"

Remus immediately grabbed the potion next to him, and brought it up to his lips.

It was empty.

-----------------

My longest chapter yet… and also my shortest update time… I think! (so she says although she did write four pages of laughter inducing madness in one day – zeropolis79)

Thanks as always to my beta, zeropolis79 and his daughter littlezero98