Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Posted: November 29th, 2010

At exactly ten o'clock am, Lily Potter woke up, got dressed, and went downstairs to get started on breakfast. It was Saturday and James had the day off for the first time in months.

Turning on the stove, pan in hand, she paused.

Harry…Harry…Harry…

It was all James had talked about the night before. And then, without even asking her for permission, he told her that Harry was coming over today. To say Lily was furious was an understatement.

Who were they, this Sirius and Harry from another universe (that alone sounded ridiculous) to think that they could just walk into her life and set themselves down permanently?

Lily had a Sirius of her own, it didn't matter that he was…absent. And she had a Harry of her own, too. Life wasn't about going to the store and shop for a new best friend and son just because the ones you got didn't turn out the way you liked.

And that's why she felt it was so wrong.

First Sirius and now this person who was probably expecting her to call him her son.

Well, it wasn't going to happen.

Sirius woke with a jolt. Nearly jumping out of bed and shoving a pair of sweats on as if his life depended on it. He thought back to yesterday's events and hoped beyond hope that it actually happened and wasn't just a hallucination. (Not that Sirius Black ever had any hallucinations)

He yanked the door of his bedroom open and stopped when he smelled breakfast. Surprised, he walked into the small kitchen and saw Harry moving around it like it was most natural thing in the world.

Harry looked up and smiled, "Its been a long time since I had anyone to make food for." He almost snickered at the inside joke.

He handed Sirius his plate, "Erm, thanks." Sirius watched his godson warily, remembering the battered teenager from yesterday and wondering when he was going to show up.

"What?" Harry asked uneasily when Sirius stopped eating and stared at him.

"Nothing."

"I'm not mental." Harry stated.

"I never said you were." Sirius picked up his fork and tried to summon the will to eat.

"You were thinking it."

"I-"

"You were. Don't deny it. Listen," He quickly gulped down the rest of his pumpkin juice and took a deep breath, "I know I seemed a bit loony yesterday, but I'm not always like that. Most of the time I don't even feel anything. I don't want to feel anything." He winced at how cowardly that sounded.

"Harry-"

"No, no let me finish. I've never ran from anything in my life. But…after losing so much, I decided that by not feeling anything, I can get up every morning and at least try to act like my life hasn't changed. You, of all people, should understand where I'm coming from."

The kitchen was silent and Sirius looked away. He wasn't entirely sure if should answer that with a yes or a no. Was it even a yes or no question? He sighed, feeling a headache coming on.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something right as his cell started ringing. He glanced at the ID and mentally winced. "What?" He asked, answering the phone impatiently.

"Everyone's ready. Are you coming?" James' said, sounding tired.

"You told the kids?" Sirius was surprised. He had thought that James would've sent them away for the day.

An exasperated sigh came from the other end, "We told Jardon and Livy, but we decided to send Kya to the Weasleys."

Sirius smiled slightly, amazed that he had guessed half right. "How did they take it?"

"They weren't the least bit surprised. And I know why. We found a pair of extendible ears stuffed under the couch."

Sirius chuckled but quickly stopped when he saw the look on Harry's face. 'The loo' Harry mouthed before walking away.

Sirius sighed, knowing he should get off the phone and help Harry, but not sure he wanted to be thrown into the teenager's personal hell.

"You have to go?" James asked, seeming to know what was going on.

"Yeah. We'll be there soon."

"James! I'm not answering that door on my own!" Lily yelled, glad to get some of her pent up anger out.

"Mum? What if he doesn't like us?" Lily turned to see her oldest daughter tugging at the hem of her shirt, her twin brother standing nervously beside her.

"What if you won't like him?" Lily asked bitterly and a bit challengingly.

Livy scowled, "If his parents are dead, then him meeting us has to be just as painful as us meeting him, Mum. Think about that."

Jardon nodded his agreement before heading toward the entry hall.

Lily sighed, wanting so much to not let her daughter's words effect her cold demeanor, but knew she was fighting a losing battle.

"Sirius." James said without much emotion.

"James." Sirius responded much the same way. He looked behind James to see his two eldest standing behind him with Lily farther back. Sirius stepped to the side, revealing a teenage copy of James with haunted green eyes.

"Mr. Potter." Harry said quietly, holding out his hand for James to shake. James felt his heart break a little, seeing this beaten boy, barely a man, in front of him. He clasped Harry's hand and gave it a firm shake.

"Mrs. Potter." Harry said, but this time, he didn't hold his hand out. He was barely holding tears back as he remembered the last time he'd heard the woman in front of him. Not Harry! Not Harry! Please - I'll do anything!

"Erm, I'm Harry." He whispered, "Its an honor to meet you both."

Lily paused, not entirely sure what to say. This wasn't what she had been expecting. She was, for some reason, expecting a haughty teenager believing that they should love him just because. A lot like how she remember James at Hogwarts. But not this, this broken, quiet man who was more like a child who needed to be held. She briefly caught Sirius' gaze and saw the man put his arm protectively around Harry's shoulders.

"This," She started, but stopped to clear her throat, "is Livy and Jardon. They're twins." She winced, knowing she was pointing out the obvious. "Um, shall we head to the dinning room for lunch?"

They silently made their way to the dining room and Harry's lips turned up a bit at the Gryffindor colors around the room. He made sure to sit next to Sirius - away from the rest of the family.

"So…H-Harry." James paused as Lily started handing out the plates. He didn't miss the way her hand shook when she handed Harry his. "What is it that you like to do?"

Harry frowned, it sounded more like an interview question than conversation at a 'family' reunion. "Quidditch, sir."

Sirius smiled proudly, "On the Gryffindor team his first year."

James was obviously impressed, while Lily looked like she'd eaten something sour. The twins glanced at Harry in awe.

"Not even two minutes into the conversation and we're already talking about Quidditch." Lily said, pointedly looking at James to change the subject. But then, eyeing Harry and his happiness at finding something they could all talk about while not directing making him the subject, she added, "How did you make the team so early?"

"It was the day of our broom riding lesson and Neville had fallen off his and broken his wrist." He noticed how the adults in the room shifted uncomfortably at the mention of his friend.

"Madam Hooch immediately took Neville to the hospital wing, threatening anyone who so much as dared to hover over the ground with automatic expulsion. He dropped his remembrall in the process and when Malfoy tried to steal it, I challenged him, asking him to hand it over. He threw it, hoping I would get caught." Harry smiled at the irony.

"I got caught alright, by Professor McGonagall. Instead of getting in trouble, she gave me a spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, as seeker."

"That's amazing! You must've been pretty good if Minerva signed you up without any detentions for breaking the rules." James said, sitting straighter in his and giving Harry his full attention.

"Malfoy?" Livy asked, her brow wrinkling in confusion. "Draco Malfoy?"

Harry nodded, glaring into his bowl of soup just thinking about the man.

"Why would Draco do something like that?" He looked up, surprised that she had called Malfoy by his first name. Why would she even ask a question which had an even more obvious answer?

"Yes. Draco's a nice boy. He's Livy and Jardon's friend. He's even been over a couple of times." James winked at Livy, clearly hinting at something more. Livy blushed and looked down. And Harry, who had just taken a sip of his soup, coughed, spitting the hot liquid all over himself.

"What?" He asked, angry and upset that a slimy, snake like Draco Malfoycould weasel himself into - into what exactly? He couldn't really call these people his family, now could he?

"I don't understand! Malfoy isn't a person you want to be around! He's -"

"I won't have you talking about him like that. His parents -" Livy nearly yelled, but was cut off by a livid Harry.

"Lucius Malfoy is nothing short of a bastard! He's a Death Eater, damn it! And while I don't have anything incriminating on Narcissa, I sure as hell can't say anything positive! And the only reason I even slightly put up with that git of a son of theirs is because he didn't want to do what Voldemort assigned him! But it doesn't even matter, does it? Dumbledore ended up dead anyway!" He was breathing hard, briefly wishing he had stayed in his own world where he didn't have to deal with naïve idiots. But he quickly banished the thought.

The room was eerily silent and everyone was looking at him, taking in everything that he had said. Sirius, who hadn't had a chance to ask Harry what had happened after he 'died', was shocked. "Dumbledore's dead?"

Harry nodded.

"I was going to say that his parents have made mistake, but they, too, are good people." Livy said quietly.

Harry glared at her, refusing to believe that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy could ever be good people. As far as Draco was concerned, if this world's Potters were ok with associating with people like him and his family, he wasn't sure he wanted anything to do with them.

"I think I'll be going now." He quickly got up, searching for his wand, but then remembering that Sirius still had it. He would have to talk to him about that as soon as possible.

"Harry, I've met them. They're…different than the people we knew." Sirius said consolingly.

"I don't care!" Harry spat viciously, he needed to get out of here. He felt as if the wall were closing in on him and he knew he was close to hyperventilating.

"Harry, please, Cissy -" Harry snorted at the childhood nickname. People like her shouldn't even have a nickname! "is my cousin. Even back, eh, home, she had a good heart. She just feel into bad circumstances. Here, Lucius was never a Death Eater -"

"Oh, I hardly believe that!" Harry took a deep breath, trying to calm down his racing heart. There wasn't any need to get mad at Sirius, no matter how irrational he was behaving. "Do you miss them, Potter? It's only been a few minutes!" Lucius taunted, all the while laughing. Harry glanced behind Malfoy, seeing black smoke rise - higher and higher - from a pile of wood, all that was left of the Burrow. Never before had Harry felt such hate pulsing through his veins, begging to be let out and get vengeance on the man responsible for Harry's misery. His family's misery. The thought of them burning alive…

"Harry!" Sirius shook his godson's shoulders, trying to get a reaction out of him.

"Wh-What?" He tried to say, but it came out a jumbled mess. He felt panic rising in him as he realized he couldn't open his eyes and his mouth felt full of cotton. What's wrong with me? Harry thought, trying futilely to fill his lungs with air.

He had the vague feeling of being carried by someone. Sirius, perhaps?

"Where did you go, just now? Are you alright? You're paler than parchment. Lily!" Harry distantly realized that Sirius had set him down on something soft. He assumed a couch.

Breathe in, breathe out. Come on, Harry, you've been through worse!

"I think he's having a panic attack." Lily sighed, "I wish I knew for sure. Maybe we should take him to St. Mungos?"

"No," Sirius said forcefully, "He hates hospitals."

"Alright, how about from now on until we get this all sorted out, there'll be not talk about the Mal - them in this house, understood?"

"But mum, Draco's coming over to play Quidditch tomorrow!"

"Jardon, obviously that can't happen now. Do me a favor and let him know? Go on."

He can come. Your family can talk to whoever they want to talk to. I don't plan on staying here! Harry tried to yell but he could not. She's making it sound like I'm moving in!

He heard someone's footstep come near him, clacking louder and louder with each nearing step. He held back a groan at the sound as he noted that he now had a throbbing headache.

"Here, this will help." Lily said, genuine concern in her voice. There was a moment of complete silence and then he felt a cold cloth on his forehead. Harry wished that he could thank her.

"Livy? Can you get the calming draught in the cupboard? And I think a dreamless sleep potion would work wonders right about now."

Harry sighed in relief as the painful memories faded away and he fell into darkness.

"I don't know what to do with him. I'd apologize for his actions, but knowing where he's coming from, I won't. That, and he'd have my head if he knew. Something about 'if I wanted to apologize, I would've done it myself'. Bloody stubborn, that one." Sirius was currently pacing in the Potter's living room, with Lily and James sitting in front of him. The twins were in the upstairs guestroom, watching Harry sleep. They were to alert the adults (Sirius first and foremost) when he woke up. Hard to do under all the potions and protective charms he was under, but Sirius knew Harry was a special child. Not amount of magic could save him from himself.

"Sirius, you can stop worrying. Harry needs rest and that's just what he getting."

Sirius looked at James and smiled, clearly showing that he thought James delusional. "You wouldn't understand, would you? Just in the short time that I had known him, which was just over two years, mind you, Harry had experienced more horrors and confrontations from Voldemort than most men twice, if not three times his age."

The Potters looked skeptical, "He was at Hogwarts. Voldemort could not reach him."

Sirius shook his head as the naïve couple in front of him. They had seen Voldemort's cruelty first hand. Did they honestly think that the castle walls would stop the monster from getting what he wanted most? No.

They were blinded by hope and 'all things good'. In Sirius' book, that made them stupid. Hope and trust had killed his family and given him a life sentence to Azkaban. He would not be so thoughtless again.

"In his first year, Harry faced Voldemort and won. The same happened his second. I won't disillusion you. It wasn't easily and it did take it's toll on him. As I was not there during all this, I do not have all the details. His third year, he faced over a hundred dementors, unfortunately, I was the reason for this. Harry's fourth year was disastrous, from beginning to end.

"He saw his first, and I'm quiet sure not his last, death. A fellow student name Cedric Diggory." Lily gasped, she knew the Diggory boy! She had taught him.

Sirius ignored the interruption as if it hadn't happened, "He witnessed Voldemort's rebirth." He had told the Potter's that Voldemort had fallen sixteen years ago, although he didn't see fit to tell them how.

"And fought him. He almost died." Sirius whispered, eyes clenched shut as he remember Harry telling Dumbledore and himself what he had been through that night.

"Priori Incantatem."

"But that means -" Lily started but Sirius finished for her.

"Yes, Harry and Voldemort's wands have the same core. A feather from Fawkes. The connection saved him.

"He's also a Parselmouth," He noticed that James and Lily looked more surprised than disgusted, the opposite of what he had been expecting.

"Harry's been through a lot and I want nothing more than to be there for him. I've failed him most of his life, I want to make things right."

Inspiration for this chapter came from What is Right: Year One by Emma Lipardi, check if out if you haven't already.

I know its been a while, but I kinda lost interest. Hope its still good.