Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A/N: Thanks for all your reviews, I'm glad you enjoyed Sirius's homecoming, I did too!

Summary: A continuation of Complexities of the Heart,

Things Between People

By katemary77

Chapter Eleven:

No ordinary wings I'll need –

The sky itself will carry me back to you.

­One Sweet Love, Sara Bareilles

It didn't take long to alert the Order of Sirius' miraculous return. Once they'd deemed it was a reasonable enough time, Remus had poked his head into the fireplace and Floo-called the Headmaster. Three seconds later, Professor Dumbledore was stepping through the fire, still in his nightrobes, and Professor McGonagall followed soon after. Minerva had surreptiously wiped tears from her eyes as she embraced one of her favourite – if most mischievous – students. Dumbledore got the word out, and all day Order members would pop in to see Sirius for himself and welcome him back. Tonks had managed to knock down seven things in her rush to hug him.

Sometime in the morning, still early by his standards, Harry had suddenly jumped and realised Hermione and Ron had no idea what'd occurred overnight. He jumped up, prepared to run upstairs, but the sight of Sirius stopped him.

"It's alright, kid," Sirius reassured him, "I'll be here when you come back."

Harry's answering smile was dazzling; it caused Anna to wonder where he'd hidden it in the last seven months.

It didn't take long for Harry to wake his friends up, and judging by the huge amount of noise coming from upstairs, he hadn't bothered to use as much tact as Remus and Anna had – if he used any at all. Soon, the thundering of three pairs of feet on old wooden stairs assaulted their ears and Sirius stood, waiting.

The door burst open and Ron and Hermione stood breathless under the archway, with Harry bobbing up and down behind them, grinning from ear to ear.

"Sirius!" Hermione squeaked.

The Marauder opened his arms wide and Hermione didn't hesitate, running straight into them. Ron followed soon after and Harry, seeing another opportunity arise, gleefully followed their example.

The sight had Anna's eyes tearing again.

"Merlin!" she cursed, "I'm leaking again! I can hardly stop it!"

Remus laughed and squeezed her hand. It was almost an emotional overload for her, so many people feeling so many overwhelming emotions at once was making her a bit giddy. With a pang, she realised the last time she'd suffered this kind of strain was when Sirius had died.

The thing was, they were really still a bit foggy on whether that had actually happened at all.

Once the kids had gotten over their initial excitement, the inhabitants of Grimmauld Place settled into some sort of serious discussion.

"So what actually happened to you?"

Sirius shrugged. "Honestly, I don't really know. I remember Bellatrix firing that spell at me and I remember slipping backwards. After that it's all really a bit of a blur. I think I fell for a very long time. A lot of it's jumbled, I remember lots of memories, like my life was flashing before my eyes – " there were a few snorts at the cliché " – and then… I think I remember James."

"My dad?" Harry asked sharply.

Sirius smiled. "Yeah. I don't know, maybe it was just a dream or something." Sirius was pensive for a moment, but then shook himself out of it. "And then I fell out of the Veil and came here. That's about it, really."

Hermione sucked in a deep breath, as if about to begin a long spiel, but let it out awkwardly as everyone turned to face her.

"It's alright, Hermione," Sirius grinned, "Go ahead."

She drew in another deep breath and exhaled in a rush of words. "I don't think this has ever happened before! After you – ah – died, I did a bit of research on the Veil and apparently in medieval times it was used to execute criminals; they'd be lined up and walked through. The practice was stopped because they felt it cruel; no one really knew for sure where they were sending people. Was it hell? Was it limbo? Or maybe even another dimension? But never did I find anything about people coming out. It's impossible!"

"Oh, I like impossible," Sirius said ruefully.

"Perhaps," Remus mused thoughtfully, "If the Veil was previously only used to execute criminals, the entrance of a good, innocent man such as Sirius was wrong somehow, and that's why he's here now."

Those at the table pondered this in silence, until Harry suddenly jumped up from his chair.

"Speaking of innocence; Sirius, you're free!"

Sirius quickly joined Harry in standing. "What?"

"They caught Wormtail during the raid on Azkaban, he's serving thirteen life sentences now."

"Wait there was a raid on Azkaban?"

"Yeah!" the Weasley twins piped up, "And Harry made this wicked patronus; it actually killed the Dementors!"

"And then we took a block off of Harry's magic and now he can do stuff wandlessly!" Ron contributed.

"Wandless magic…" Sirius muttered, and then his confusion turned to consternation. "Wait, Harry was at a raid on Azkaban!?"

The young Gryffindor shrugged sheepishly.

"He sits in on Order meetings, too," Remus said with a grin.

Sirius took a deep breath.

"Start from the beginning, please."

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

It took a while to tell Sirius everything that had occurred in the months he had missed. By the time everything had been explained, they realised that it was almost midday and nobody had showered or dressed yet. Predictably, this caused a stampede of feet to all available bathrooms, leaving Harry, Remus, Anna and Sirius to wait it out.

Sirius sighed. "I've sure missed a lot."

Harry shrugged, the grin on his face seemed to be a permanent fixture. "It doesn't matter, you're here now."

Anna bit back a smile. Honestly, she was half expecting Harry to climb into his godfather's lap and never let go. Come to think of it, it really wasn't such a bad idea, she'd be sure to do that later.

"How long til you're due back at school, kid?"

"Only two weeks," he replied with a pout.

Sirius ruffled his hair. "Not to worry, Harry. We'll make sure we visit a lot. I'm free now, I can take you to Hogsmeade!" A thoughtful expression – coloured with happiness – came over his face, "Free… I'd begun to think that would never happen."

Anna, sitting beside Sirius, took his hand up in hers, resting them both in her lap. He looked at her and with his free hand looped some of her hair around his finger and gave a gentle tug.

"You all need to sleep more! And eat more," he scolded, unintentionally channelling Molly Weasley. "Everybody looks a little worse-for-wear."

"It's been hard," Remus said quietly, and Sirius did not miss the glances Harry and Remus both threw Anna's way.

His brow furrowed, examining Anna. "Did something else happen?"

After a very brief moment she shook her head. "No. We just missed you very much."

Harry took Sirius' other hand and repeated, "Very much."

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

Eventually, they moved from the kitchen into the more comfortable living room. Here, Harry demonstrated to Sirius all that he'd been learning with Professor Dumbledore. This demonstration was similar to the one he'd performed for Remus, only Harry pushed himself a little harder to make it a little more spectacular. He'd had a headache afterwards, but the wide grin on his godfather's face had made it worth it.

His headache didn't last long anyway. As soon as Anna noticed, she beckoned him over and he let her fingers rest at his temples, gently rubbing them for a moment. His headache melted away. When they'd gotten to the more complicated parts of learning Occlumency, Harry had been plagued by headaches – just as he had been when Snape taught him – but then Anna had shown him this little bit of magic she could perform with ease and they faded away.

Straightening, Harry thanked Anna with a smile. She responded with a squeeze of his arm and Harry dropped to the floor of the living room, resting his back against the couch between Sirius' legs. Sirius, who'd been watching this simple exchange, felt his heart warm at the apparent closeness that had grown in his absence between his godson and the woman he loved.

They stayed up late into the night. The Weasleys trickled out of the room as the hour grew later, Ginny pulling Ron and Hermione along with her, knowing that Remus, Anna and certainly Harry would enjoy some time alone.

Anna nodded off to sleep some time around midnight, her cheek resting on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius decided shortly after that it was bedtime and nudged his godson, carefully detangling himself from Anna so as not to wake her. With his hand on Harry's shoulder, they walked quietly to the boy's room. Pausing at his door, Sirius turned Harry around to face him.

"I'm going to go to the Ministry tomorrow. I'm going to petition to become your legal guardian."

Harry didn't need to say anything, just crushed himself to his godfather as he'd been doing all day. Sirius softly wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders. They all seemed so damaged. Sirius knew of course that his sudden death would've affected them, but more than half a year later he imagined some recovery would've begun. Examining his family, however, Sirius knew they'd been a long way from it before his unexpected reappearance. Perhaps he had underestimated his importance in these peoples' lives. But as he guided his godson into his bed and switched off the light, Sirius promised himself that just as Harry, Remus and Anna had helped to rebuild his life after Azkaban, so too would he do all that he could to fix the damage he had caused.

Remus stood up as he entered the living room.

"Goodnight, Moony."

"Goodnight, Padfoot."

They shared a hug and as Remus was leaving the room, Sirius gently lifted Anna into his arms. Their room was mostly unchanged. He lay her down on the bed and carefully removed her clothes. Opening the top drawer of her bedside table to retrieve her nightclothes, Sirius smiled sadly when he saw what it was; an overlarge blue shirt, one of his. He put it away; she didn't need it anymore now that he was back.

Swiftly changing himself, Sirius tucked her under the covers and jumped in himself. He pulled her close to him, and she woke a little.

"Sirius," she murmured. "You're real."

"Yes, I'm really here, Annie."

She smiled; it'd been a while since someone had called her that, seven months in fact.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

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

Sirius didn't anticipate any problems in being granted guardianship of Harry. He had, after all, been wrongly accused and imprisoned without trial for twelve years. Reason would dictate that the Ministry would be happy to bend over backwards for him.

Remus agreed. "The news of your innocence came just as some truly disturbing stories about Fudge were surfacing. There was a public outcry that you'd been imprisoned, especially when Dumbledore told the papers that your innocence had been spoken of to Fudge and he'd ignored it. Support for Amelia Bones is a lot stronger but she still needs some kind of windfall for the public."

"Bones was always a fair woman," Sirius replied, pulling his coat on. "I'll see you in a bit, kid." Sirius squeezed Harry's shoulder, pecked Anna on the cheek and swiftly walked out the door, eager to get the day's job done. He Apparated with a sharp crack and was soon inside the Ministry. It took a moment for Sirius to beat down the urge to run and hide; surely the remnants of being a fugitive of the law. But Sirius straightened his back and lifted his head, determined to make the most of this first walk of freedom in so many years.

Walking through the Atrium, Sirius knew a few people were recognising him. Though he looked nothing like the deranged psychopath featured in those damned WANTED! posters, his face was famous enough to have attracted some attention.

"Sirius Black, I'm here to see the Minister."

Sirius handed his wand – retrieved from the Department of Mysteries by Remus – to the flustered security guard and was soon told to proceed.

Outside the Minister's office was a young receptionist. As he walked in, she raised her eyes and gasped.

"Hi, I'm Sirius Black,"

"Uh… um… do you have an appointment?" she blurted.

Sirius shook his head. "No, but I think she'll see me anyway."

"Um…" the young lady tapped an ornament on her desk with her wand.

"Yes, Rebecca?" came the voice of Amelia Bones.

"Um… Minister Bones, Sirius Black is here to see you."

There was a short pause. "Send him in."

Sirius nodded at the lady and pushed open a wide set of doors.

"Sirius Black," Amelia Bones greeted, standing to meet him. "I was told you were dead."

"A miracle," he replied. "Congratulations on winning the vote."

"Thank you," she said, sitting down. "Please, take a seat. Now, should I assume you're here to discuss restitution payments?"

Sirius shook his head. "I don't want any money. The Black family has enough of that. What I want is worth more than galleons."

Bones frowned but gestured for him to continue.

"Legal guardianship of Harry Potter."

"Albus Dumbledore…"

"Has no grounds to decide where Harry goes. I'm his godfather; his parents named me his guardian in the case of something happening to them. It's in the will. Now that I'm able to, I'd like to give him a family."

Amelia nodded. "It's a very reasonable request." Tapping the copy of the intercom device on her receptionist's desk, Amelia raised her voice a bit, "Rebecca?"

"Yes Minister?"

"Please have someone from the Department of Family Services come to my office, as quickly as they can."

When all the necessary forms had been filled out and signed, Bones turned to Sirius.

"Is there anything else, Mr. Black?"

"Uh, yes," he replied. "I'd also like to register as an Animagus. I'm a big black dog, rather like a grim."

Scribbling this down, Minister Bones gave a wry smile.

"Are you sure we can't offer you any kind of payments?" she asked again as they were shaking hands.

Sirius backed towards the door.

"Put it towards the war effort… and Amelia, don't let this happen again."

She nodded grimly. "You have my word on that, Sirius."

Out on the streets of Muggle London, Sirius had his wand out and was ready to Apparate when an idea struck him. Tucking his wand away, Sirius turned and lost himself in the crowd. There was something else to take care of today.

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

When Sirius arrived back at Grimmauld Place, the delicious smells coming from the kitchen told him that lunch must be just about ready. Reaching the kitchen, he smiled at the sight. Anna was leaning over a large saucepan, stirring what smelt like pumpkin soup, and Remus was carving a huge loaf of bread into slices.

"Sirius!" Anna exclaimed with surprise. "Did everything go well at the Ministry?"

He nodded, moving towards her and placing a hand on her hip. She dipped the ladle into the saucepan and lifted it to her face, blowing on the thick, orange soup.

"Here."

Sirius leant forward and sipped from the spoon. "Yum," he said with a smile, squeezing her gently. "Is Harry upstairs?"

"Yep, would you let them know lunch is ready?"

Sirius nodded and dropped a kiss on her shoulder before bounding up the stairs.

"Lunch is ready, kids," Sirius said, tapping on the door of the living room.

"Great, come on, Ron, Hermione."

Sirius shook her head as Ginny herded her brother and friend out of the room; she seemed to show tact and understanding beyond her years.

Harry stood and walked over to Sirius, his face apprehensive.

"Well? How did it go?"

Sirius grinned.

"Say hello to your legal guardian."

Harry whooped and forcefully embraced Sirius.

"Yes!" he exclaimed, the shout muffled by Sirius's shirt.

Sirius put his arms around his godson and smiled. When they broke apart, he took Harry's shoulders in his hands.

"I love you, you know that, right Harry?"

The young Gryffindor nodded and looked down. His eyes were wet.

"Hey, hey," Sirius said, concerned, "Come here."

He pulled the boy into his arms. Harry's shoulders shook.

"What's wrong?"

Harry looked up at him.

"Nothing. You're just the first person to say that to me."

Sirius's face softened and he slung an arm around Harry.

"Your father was the first person to say it to me."

"Really?" Harry's deep emerald eyes looked to Sirius, who nodded.

"Yep. Of course, we were both pretty young at the time and were a bit embarrassed, pretended it'd never happened," he said with a chuckle.

Harry laughed softly and wiped the pad of his thumb under his eyes. "Yeah, I can see why you would be embarrassed."

"Don't be," Sirius said firmly. "There's nothing to be ashamed of. The Dursleys were awful people. I wish… I wish things had been different, that I'd got to say that to you sooner."

Harry shrugged.

"Doesn't matter now, legal guardian."

Sirius grinned.

"Come on, I'm hungry and that soup is delicious. Let's go down."

Later that night, as Harry pulled his shoes off and sat down on his mattress, he noticed a small crystal vial on his bedside table. A note was attached.

"I'm not really the first person to say that.

Padfoot.'

Harry moved to his closet, from where he pulled the stone basin that Sirius – through Remus – had given to Harry for his birthday. He uncorked the vial and poured the thick liquid into the Pensive. With a deep breath, Harry plunged in.

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

He was in a hospital; St. Mungo's, to be more exact. Remus and Peter Pettigrew were sitting, mostly calm, on uncomfortable looking chairs. Sirius was pacing anxiously, up down, up down, up down. Harry looked up at the clock on the wall; it was four o'clock in the morning.

Suddenly, the unmistakeable figure of his father burst out of a nearby door. Sirius's neck snapped around.

"It's a boy!" his father shouted, and it felt as if Harry's stomach was full of butterflies as he realised which memory Sirius had left by his bed. "It's a boy!"

Sirius raced over and pulled James into a fierce hug. "Congratulations!"

A weak, feminine voice drifted out into the hallway.

"Sirius, come in."

James ushered his best friend into the room and Harry followed close behind them. His mother was lying on a hospital bed. She looked exhausted, her crimson hair was sweaty and pushed back of her face, and her emerald eyes were tired but shining with happiness. There was a small bundle in her arms.

"Come and meet Harry," she said to Sirius, and reached a hand out to her husband. James moved beside her, placed his arm around her shoulders and looked down at the bundle. Sirius moved closer, as did Harry, and looked upon the tiny face of the newly-born Harry Potter.

"Oh, Prongs, Lily, he's beautiful."

"He's perfect," James said quietly, tracing a finger over the tiny cheek of his baby. Baby Harry's eyes opened blearily and looked up into the face of his father.

Sirius gasped. "He's got your eyes, Lily."

She smiled. "I think he looks just like his father."

"Sirius."

Sirius glanced up at James.

"Godfather?"

Sirius grinned, overwhelmed. "Of course! Of course. I'd do anything for the little kid, got to make sure he grows up into a right and proper trouble-maker. A second generation Marauder!"

Lily scowled, but only playfully. As she looked back down at her sleeping babe she smiled, and tears filled her eyes.

"We love you, Harry," she said softly, and James pressed a kiss to her temple, brushing her hair back. "We love you so much."

"Yes we do," James said, his own smile brightening his features.

The edges of the scene began to fade, and Harry felt himself get tugged back into Grimmauld Place.

"Merlin, you startled me, Harry," said Ron, who was changing into his pyjamas. "Hey, are you alright?"

Harry's smile was resplendent. "Yeah, I'm perfect.