Chapter eighteen – 'It was dodgy interbreeding like that, that sent most the pure blood's nuts!'
"Pink and purple Sirius, nice and bright and I want a nice double bed in here too!" She decided as they opened the door to find yet another old disused bedroom. It wasn't quiet in the same state as Harry's was and it was in fact a little bigger but still, he could see why Tonks wanted it. The room was already rather girly and across the hall from Harry's, Sirius's and Lupin's which sat neatly three in a row. Sirius had decided he'd rather have Harry next to him and Harry didn't care if Tonks got a bigger or better room than him, he was just glad to have one at all.
"I should have known. Do you want lime green curtains to go with that or just the traditional red?" He asked sarcastically looking at Harry with a bit of a grin.
"No Sirius, I want a lemon roman blinds if you don't mind, so it lets the sun through in the morning and I'm gonna need another chest of draws to put stuff in. Now let me have a look in the bathroom." She decided firmly as Sirius rolled his eyes a little at what he'd let himself in for. The cleaning he had to do to get company these days, it had never occurred to him though that occasionally, the people around him might actually like his company.
"Fine I'm sure I can dig one out for you." Sirius mumbled as Harry grinned back at him.
"And yes Sirius there aint no way I'm sharing a bathroom with you. What with your malting and my cleanliness we'd never get on!" She added enjoying her chance to be the annoying women for once in her life. At both home and work she always found herself playing down anything female about her character, it was only Remus that ever gave her a chance to ever really enjoy being a girl.
"Err, what do you mean, your cleanliness? I spent minuets washing this morning and I don't malt all year round." Sirius half snapped, he didn't like malting comments made about him, his hair wasn't thinning out like Remus's even if there was the occasional grey strand appearing now that even he couldn't ignore. Even if Hermione had insisted Harry developed the tact to mention the waves of grey growing round the back of Sirius's head. Harry wasn't quiet sure as to why he was given the lecture, but apparently it was a middle aged man thing that Sirius couldn't help, at least that was what her mother had told her.
"Yes but you agree, we'd never get along. The bathrooms not too bad either Sirius but we're gonna have to do summit about the muck in that bath, I think something's crawling in it." Tonks explained stepping aside to let Sirius have a look.
"It's not Kresher is it?" Harry wondered honestly seeing Tonks smirk at him.
"Does madam want anything else?" Sirius asked reminding Harry strangely of Kresher now.
"Yeah actually, will you ban Kresher from my room, I don't want that filthy little bugger bothering me and going through my stuff when I'm at work and what not?" She asked but Sirius suddenly lost all his sarcasm and became an adult again.
"Course I will. Now it's getting a bit late and you've had a long day, pair of you. I'll come sort this place out later, so why don't you go in the girls old room for now downstairs like you've been doing?" He suggested looking from Harry to Tonks.
"Yeah ok, I've kind of set up camp in there recently anyway, I don't expect you to clean it up straight away. Well at least I don't expect you to have Harry cleaning on his time off, you can do it later when he's back at school."
"No of course not!" Sirius replied quickly and found himself receiving a little hug from Tonks at her glee and wasn't quiet sure what to do with it looking an awful lot like Ron as he shrugged and patter her back a bit as gentle as he could.
"Night Harry." She smiled and gently hugged and kissed him on the cheek heading out the room and back down the stairs.
"I wouldn't want to be down there by myself." Harry explained as he pulled a t-shirt out and shoved it under his pillow then sat down on the bed next to Sirius.
"No I didn't think you would. But Tonks will be fine, you don't mind me cleaning for a bit tomorrow do you?" He suddenly asking thinking it was a lame idea to get Harry to help him but was sure if he put it off too much Tonks might not stay, or she'll find an excuse to leave him.
"No I'm sure we could have some fun with it.' Harry replied looking over at his fire for a moment.
'Is something the matter with Lupin he seems ever so odd?" Harry asked carefully as Sirius became pleased he wasn't the only one noticing it.
"I'm not sure. He was fine not so long ago and it is getting close to a full moon again but I haven't seen him quiet so odd recently. Tonks seems to be getting on ok with him but she tends to stay away from him whenever I'm around." Sirius explained picking at his fingernails then realised Harry was looking at him and suddenly stopped. Lilly always told him off for picking at his fingernails and he couldn't seem to break either habit while Harry was around.
"Well, you do play the annoying older brother thing a bit too well." Harry grinned looking up at Sirius who still seemed a little troubled in the dimming light.
"I guess, but still, it doesn't matter, as long as they're not shagging loudly every night or fighting like a cat and wolf, then I don't really care." Sirius explained but there was something in his voice that made Harry disagree and he voiced it before he'd even realised.
"Yeah you do!"
"What?" He suddenly jumper half expecting a bit of silence again.
"You do care about them both don't ya?" Harry explained not at all feeling uncomfortable voicing his opinion to Sirius these days.
"Your getting awfully cheeky sometimes you know Harry?" Sirius asked carefully, but Harry was sure he wasn't annoyed by it and probably found it endearing in some way.
"So? Mrs Weasley recons it's because I spend too much time with you!" Harry replied quickly making Sirius break into a grin and scruff his hair up again.
"Idiot." He laughed seeing Harry attempt to flatten his hair again as soon as he'd stopped.
"I hope she doesn't come back here though, I don't want her ruining our fun." Harry explained but Sirius only laughed a bit harder.
"Funny that's what you mother used to say about me. Sometimes I think she only liked it when I came round to baby sit, but to be honest I did come around a lot so I can see why she might get a bit tetchy about it." Sirius laughed seeing Harry's understanding look.
"She won't will she?" He suddenly worried looking at Sirius more seriously.
"I doubt it. But I'll expect a visit from Arthur some time soon and the twins will probably want to come see you. They keep turning up at the oddest of times." Sirius explained trying to reassure Harry that Mrs Weasley wasn't coming back anytime soon and it will be ok.
"Really?"
"Yeah well, I'm sure they'd find the whole business very funny. Now tell me about this girl?" He quickly added and Harry was about to start but suddenly shut his mouth tight frowning.
"No I won't, she's my little secret and she's staying that way." Harry decided firmly.
"Are, come on Harry, don't get all mardy at me? I'm board."
"Read a magazine then!" Harry sighed giving Sirius a pathetic you-have-to-try-harder-than-that look.
"I can't all the best pages are stuck together." He grumbled.
"Far too much information there Sirius!" Harry replied getting up and kicking his shoes off before climbing back on to the bed and getting his legs laid out comfortable behind Sirius who remained sitting.
"Sorry, but still, where'd you get them from anyway?" He asked having noted how Harry had always been a bit on the vague side of things about it.
"Err, this dodgy shop near where I live at the Dursley's. You can get them in any muggle news agents really but this place sells them to underage lads." Harry explained honestly resting his head in his hand and his elbow on his knee.
"Really, you can get them anywhere?" Sirius asked a little surprised.
"Yeah top shelf of any newsagents, why, don't wizards have them?" Harry asked suddenly a bit curious by how shocked his little joke had made Sirius when he'd first realised it. Harry had intended it to be just a little funny joke to say thank-you for coming to rescue him and letting him stay over the summer, but now it had ended up being quiet a bit more only neither of them really knew what to say about them despite it being rather clear Sirius had studied them considerably over the past months.
"No, only some dodgy black market places. And even then, the girls don't quiet sit like that on a horse like Harry, and especially not that totally naked." Sirius replied showing just how odd he'd found them to Harry, who was beginning to wonder if Sirius had been actually really offended by it.
"Really, what a boring bunch of old farts wizards are? They were just tame one's I got you, you can get far worse than that Sirius only they cost more.' Harry explained more off hand than Sirius could be.
'You aint just winding me up are you?"
"Winding you up? Why would I do that?" Sirius asked still rather confused.
"Because you're a board, lonely, old, man Sirius?" Harry wondered sarcastically earning him a slap from some cushions again.
"Oi, I am not old!"
"Ok you're not old but you are board aren't you most the time and I know you get lonely more than just some of the time?" Harry decided seeing Sirius's agreeing look.
"Yeah I guess. Now tell me more about these magazines. And how the bloody hell do you know about stuff like that?" Sirius wondered turning sideways in his seat and leaning back on the bed frame to face Harry who was now laid out a bit like a cat with his hands behind his head and his legs stretched out one over the other.
"Common knowledge. Well at least in the muggle world!" Harry shrugged.
"Really, even at your age?"
"I'm old Sirius when it comes to stuff like that in the muggle world. At sixteen girls can happily sleep with anybody they feel like, it's only wizards that say you have to seventeen to do anything decent." Harry sighed having picked up enough from his cousin when he was younger to know more than he wanted at the time about sex and the ins and outs of it all. This was something he always seemed to have above Ron, who although with several older brothers seemed a little bit on the naive side.
"Seriously, how old you meant to be when buy them things?"
"Your considered an adult when you turn 18 and you can do anything you like then." Harry replied comfortably, he'd never talked to Sirius like this and was hoping now he was relatively over his dreadful experience in the summer, or at least he didn't go to pieces at the very thought of it. So he could pick his godfather's brain about a few things that he'd heard but never really understood. If only his confidence could hold out long enough to actually ask him. Harry was hoping that under all that aged face was a man, young enough to remember what it's like to be too nervous to ask about embarrassing things.
"What and they let you have sex at sixteen?" Sirius asked a little shocked.
"No, just girls, there's no law about lads except if they want to get it on with another man." Harry replied surprised he sounded so casual, he couldn't look Sirius in the eye but still, he could touch closely on the subject now even if it was only with Sirius.
"Hmm, don't know anything about that Harry, you don't get many openly gay wizards. A lot of people don't really agree with it."
"A lot of people don't really agree with werewolf's but that doesn't make it wrong. But I do understand, Hermione warned me not to make to many puffter jokes around Ron because he doesn't find them funny. She thinks its quiet odd really, how so many wizards treat muggles as if there stupid and yet they can't even accept basic normal things going off right under there noses."
"That's what Andromeda said. She doesn't care that she's a pure witch, she thinks people should make the effort to try and understand like Arthur does. Even if he gets it wrong at least he tries to make the effort to understand." Sirius explained trying his best not to let any of his old family prejudices affect him now.
"Is that why she married a muggle?" Harry wondered.
"No I think that was more to do with his dashing good looks and the fact that Tonks was already on the way when he asked her. Andromeda kind of went through a bit of a hippy faze then that's why Tonks got her odd first name." Sirius laughed as he watched Harry yawn.
"Sounds a bit like Nymphomaniac to me? It's a bit offensive but I bet Lupin doesn't mind too much if it's true." Harry laughed even harder when he saw how long it took for Sirius to twig what he'd just said.
"Harry! Behave yourself will ya?" Sirius half snapped hitting Harry with the cushion.
"Oh come on, you can't say you hadn't noticed the resemblance." Harry laughed.
"Fine I had, but still, your dead crude sometimes you know. I've never noticed it too much before, but you've got a right warped sense of humour sometimes Harry." He explained with a very slightly curious expression, this seemed to indicate to Harry that Sirius was probably very interested in Harry and his warped sense of humour.
"It's dammed humour Sirius. And besides, you're never very blunt about things are you?" Harry asked a little too sarcastically but Sirius could only nod in agreement, even he had to admit he had a habit of being more than slightly blunt at times.
"I don't get what you mean by dammed humour Harry?" He finally asked as Harry settled back down and yanked the cushion away from Sirius to be on the safe side.
"No I don't suppose you would. It's why I get on so well with Nev he's got it too now. We spend hours making inappropriate comments that hardly anybody gets. He does doodles too, most of them are well, really quiet horrible, but funny all the same if you're in on the joke, that is." Harry explained but Sirius had the odd feeling that he wasn't going to ever get Harry to explain what this dammed humour was in too much detail.
"You look tired Harry." He suddenly wondered seeing the dark rings shading under his eyes.
"Can't go to bed yet, I'm not tired enough? Stop up and chat with me a bit longer will ya?" Harry asked as Sirius shifted his shoes off and pulled his feet up on the bed to get more comfortable.
"Ok, but not too long, you're looking worn out." Sirius replied leaning back again on the bed.
"Now tell me more about this famous toilet door Ginny keeps laughing about?" Harry asked.
"Oh that, well, I don't really know, Remus told me about it but far as I can tell, its just a load of graffiti."
"Yeah I know but where'd you get a reputation like that, sounds a bit hypocritical if you ask me."
"Oi, I am not hypocritical!" Sirius snapped back firmly.
"You're nearly as bad as Lupin. You know he had a right go at me for wandering around Hogwarts with that map and he was one of you lot that wrote it!" Harry half complained with a little smile.
"Yeah, I guess, but what were you doing wandering around then anyway? For all you know I could have been a rampaging murderous lunatic coming to get ya!"
"Fancied a walk." Harry shrugged.
"Oh well, I suppose, Remus often used to wonder off with it for a walk at night.' Sirius decided calming slightly again.
'So who's this girl then?" He suddenly asked and Harry was glad for once Sirius was wondering back to that subject.
"Not telling you!" Harry replied lazily.
"How come you never let anything slip, it's no fun when I can't wind you up about stuff?"
"I don't know, maybe if you tried a bit harder to get it out of me then I might throw you a bone or something." Harry shrugged with his eyes half closed lazily.
"Are you trying to say I'm incompetent at getting information out of you?" Sirius wondered raising one eyebrow.
"No, just that it takes a bit more than that to trick me into telling you stuff. However, seen as you've been very nice in letting me stay I'll tell you something for free."
"You don't have to give me stuff to come and stay Harry, I like having you around, but go on then, tell me." Sirius replied sitting up properly opposite Harry and leaning into hear as Harry did the same.
"I know but still, you must have spent ages on this room for me. Anyway lovely little Lupin has been getting some recently and he's hardly the sort of man capable of managing two birds at once now is he, so that must be why Tonks was so oddly chirpy the last time I saw her?" Harry winked leaning forward to whisper quietly. Sirius had to really pay attention to what he was been told but there was no mistaking what Harry was implying.
"You think Tonks and Remus have been at it or something?" He asked sure, he would have noticed something as important as that happening in their relationship.
"I don't think Sirius, I know!"
"Oh really!" Sirius added with a hefty amount of skepticism but there was no mistaking the cogs ticking behind his eyes.
"What your telling me you haven't noticed his smug little look every time he looks at Tonks and he thinks no-one's watching?" Harry asked feeling a little unsure now.
"No, so seriously you think they've been having sex." He wondered.
"Yeah and besides, I heard Ginny and Tonks talking about it the other day. Sounded rather funny what I could catch but she seemed determined to keep the details quiet." Harry explained a little annoyed Ginny had spent so long teasing him about the information and then had flatly refused to tell him anything much. To top it all off he ended up sat on a broom for three hours afterwards with an aching hard on and very little chance of release for hours because of her.
"Oh well, there probably wasn't much to tell, I did tell Remus under no circumstances was he to try and talk to me too much about it. I just don't really like the idea of Tonks doing, well anything, that's all.' He decided then shrugged.
'Ah well, I'll get used to it I suppose. Now what else have you been doing at Hogwarts?" He asked sitting back more comfortably again.
The two sat up talking about allsorts of things for at least two hours when Harry finally decided he was too tried to force his eyes open any longer and he wanted to go to sleep. Sirius let him drift off for a bit and then pulled the blanket over him and climbed into his own bed until morning.
When he heard the clear banging of Tonks rushing off to work and Lupin coming back up to bed having let her out the front door, Sirius couldn't help but wonder about what Remus was doing letting her out the house so early when it used to be Sirius's job. Thanks to Harry he now had a whole load of weird thoughts floating about his head as to why Remus always seemed to know just how many hours kip Tonks had been getting each night.
Sirius however after listening out for signs of awake-ness from Harry, decided he was probably still asleep and rolled back over to sleep for a bit longer. Harry was grateful for the lie in and even when he saw his watch turn 9:45 decided he deserved a proper lie in and wasn't going to shift for anything until at least ten.
"What time did you get to sleep last night with Harry?" Lupin asked as he sat down on the chair in Sirius's bedroom to talk to him while he shaved. Sirius wanted to have breakfast with Harry but also didn't want to wake him up if he was still sleeping, so was trying to hold off until he appeared however hungry he now felt.
"Oh, it was gone midnight, he wanted to talk for a bit before going to bed, said he wasn't tired enough yet and it sort of went on a bit before he finally dozed off." He replied biting back his slight hunger.
"Yeah I can see that, how long did you stop up after he went to sleep watching him?" Remus asked cocking a skeptical eyebrow that Sirius knew so well these days.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Honestly your as bad as when he was a baby. You and James stopped up all night long half the time watching him sleep, he couldn't even gurgle and blow bubbles in peace!"
"Yeah well he was so small, we were worried about him." Sirius shrugged pulling a jumper on over his shirt.
"Yeah I suppose he was much smaller then, well at least you're getting on now."
"What?" He replied sitting down on his bed to pull on a pair of slightly less holy socks.
"Well you seem more like friends now and well, you've got over the awkward I-don't-know-what-to-say thing haven't ya!" Remus explained as Sirius tried his best to understand quicker.
"I guess, we got on to some rather, err, odd conversation topics at one point though." Sirius remembered tying his house shoes on now.
"Odd, what do you mean?" Remus wondered what an earth Sirius would call an odd conversation after some of the things he'd started over the months they'd spent together.
It was just something about walking into a room and in all honesty with an old comic in his hands asking weather he thought Wilma Flintstone was sexy. Lupin was so shocked he wasn't sure what to do and after forcing himself through the conversation had decided to remove all long bits of rope from anywhere Sirius might come across one by accident.
"Well I mentioned them magazines and he seemed to think them rather plain and laughed at me for being so prudish."
"Prudish! You, never? I mean you're not like you used to be sure, but still, you don't half make some crude comments some times." Remus was shocked how sweet, sometimes a bit young and naive Harry, could ever think Sirius, the once completely unrestrained bachelor, a prude.
"Yeah well he was pointing out a few of the muggle laws that seem rather odd. You know you can bye those magazines in almost every little shop. You just walk in a pick it off the shelf like a chocolate bar. And they let them have sex at sixteen if there girls but with lads they don't really mind when you do it!"
"I don't think it's exactly like that. Most lads have to be sixteen too and well, there are things around it, age gaps and what not. I heard it has more to do with catching people breaking the law rather than the actual law." Lupin explained to a still rather confused Sirius. He couldn't believe his ears when he'd first realised what Harry was mentioning but now he was beginning to wonder what sort of a world was out there these days.
"Yeah, I mean, I can understand that maybe some men prefer other men to women but to have Harry mention it so casually. Well not casually but he did try, it was really quiet unexpected I didn't know what to say to him!"
"He mentioned that?" Lupin asked quickly turning more alertly to Sirius often hoping to prove his suspicions about Harry's summer wrong and why Sirius had explained that Harry probably doesn't want men in particular getting too close to him for the rest of the summer at least. He wouldn't say much only that could Lupin make sure some other the other male members of the order didn't do anything daft like hug him however upset he might get. He even mentioned how if Harry happened to fall over or need helping up it was probably best to get Tonks to do it.
"Yeah well, not as such. He just touched on it lightly but I really wasn't expecting him to do it, so it, it through me a bit that's all.' He sighed then pulling himself together better.
'It doesn't matter, at least like you say, he can talk to me. Do you think he's ready for waking up any time soon or should I leave him be as long as he likes?" Sirius suddenly wondered as Remus rolled his eyes lazily.
"Err, I think he's woken up now and was starting to get dressed. I heard the toilet flush when I passed just before."
"Oh ok, I'll go see." Sirius decided as Lupin rolled his eyes with a small shake of his head and headed down to make breakfast.
During that day after Harry had practiced a bit at changing into a cat and jumping on Sirius's dinning table, they went to survey the mess that was to be Tonks room. At first Harry thought it would take forever but Sirius assured him that it probably wouldn't, really once they'd cleared everything out of it, it would be easy to clean and paint by magic and then they could just let her fill it back up with stuff again.
Remus came to help with them for the first two hours, shifting the bigger furniture out into the hallway with his wand but then Sirius sent him to sit and read a book or something as he looked too tired with so much standing. He did protest a bit but Sirius merely proceeded to whack him in to submission with a particularly old grubby pillow until he left the room.
He was right though, it didn't take long after they'd cleared most the stuff out to clean. Half an hour of flicking Sirius's wand around and the room was almost spotlessly clean. Sitting down for a well earned break for dinner over his favourite sandwiches and more cake Harry started to wonder.
"You know when you forced Tonks into staying you said something about moving to a different living room."
"Yeah." Sirius replied lazing back in his chair.
"What were you on about?" Harry asked finishing his bit of cake and eyeing Sirius's like he always did.
"Err, well you know that room two doors down from Tonks on the next half a floor?"
"Yeah, the one opposite Remus's spare room."
"Well that used to be mothers private parlor for when she had lady friends or so she called it over, but they were never remotely lady-like from what I could tell. It's not too small and it's surprisingly rather clean. Well considering this place so I was wondering about shifting stuff up there that's all. And if we're gonna steal Tonks's muggle toys, I thought it might be better to keep them in a spare room all together. It sounded like they all end up interconnected when you tried explaining." Sirius sighed sitting up and clearing away the plates.
"Oh, won't Kresher cause a bit of trouble if you do that?" Harry wondered as Sirius suddenly became a little annoyed.
"I can deal with him Harry!"
"Yeah I know but still, just don't wind him up deliberately, he might out live you and then who'll have the pleasure of his company?' Harry explained then thinking he'd better add something else continued.
'And well, I wouldn't want you wasting time winding him up when there's say, far more entertaining old bags and slimy gits to annoy in the world! You get a better reaction out of them than you do Kresher he just sort of grumbles and tumbles off these days."
"Hmm, I guess that is a good point. But he seems to be getting a bit slow, even for him. I know he's getting old now but I can't remember how long he's been around." Sirius pondered thoughtfully while Harry was strangely reminded of Dobby.
"How long do house elves live anyway?" Harry suddenly asked curious by how you would judge the age of a house elf.
"I surprisingly long time if you don't over work them and treat them well. Kresher had already been in the family quiet a while and was sent with my mother as a part of her dowry or something when she married. Before that he must have been around quiet a while because they would never give a young fit house elf away for nothing, my mother wasn't that well liked even by her own family and she was sort of sent to my father because he was rich and desperately needed a wife.' Sirius half mumbled in his thoughts.
'Even if it was for a father like mine. Hmm, well I can always ask him I suppose." He finally decided giving in and looking to Harry for something else to talk about.
"I guess, he can't exactly lie to you can he."
"No he can't. Well I feel a bit guilty having you cleaning all morning on your holiday." Sirius suddenly began obviously looking to do something fun because he had that restless air again about him.
"I don't mind it honestly. And besides, if you're gone con Tonks into bring you toys to play with then you'd better make a space for her to put them and then we can spend all night playing tomb raider if you want." Harry explained trying to sound even brighter than he felt if that was at all possible.
"You really don't do you?"
"Nope. You live a crumy, mucky, old hole and Tonks needs a helping hand anyway."
"A helping hand with what?" Sirius asked getting up and heading to the door after Harry.
"Annoying you of course! You're more likely to stay sane if you have something annoying around. That's why it's so useful having Snape. He lets you release all the built up tension by threatening to kill him every second you see him. Hermione say's it's very good for your blood pressure letting you be alone for him a short while every week. I hope you take full advantage of the chances because I don't want you getting ill or anything." Harry explained bluntly heading upstairs while Sirius tried to get his head round it.
The rest of that day was spent emptying anything that reminded Sirius of his mother out of the old parlor, spreading paint on Tonks walls and varnish on her floor and of course jumping on the many comfy chairs and sofas to decide which was the squashiest. Harry in particular enjoyed this much to Sirius's amusement as he had never really had the chance in his life to jump up and down on the furniture and Sirius had to admit it was a very effective way of testing after Harry crashed through a cracked chair.
Tonks appeared only for a short while to collect her rather willing and helpful little helper Remus along with a few magically enlarging bags, before heading back out to pack as much as she could. She knew she couldn't move big boxes into the house easily without people seeing stuff so after throwing out everything she could, packed everything up ready to go.
Harry was a bit unsure as to why it seemed to take them so long when they finally arrived back with just over half of what Tonks was intending to keep, as at first he thought it was only about five bagsful. That was until they started emptying it on to the dinning room table where he was attempting to finish one of his smaller bits of homework.
Although one bag did seem to have a reasonable telly in it and a play station two tucked neatly in and that was all, but the rest seemed to be full of about five or six boxes of stuff all packed in tightly and obviously not labeled or packed neatly.
"Err, yeah, I'm not going to open this lot here because it'll never go back in. So I thought we could just put it somewhere until everything's ready." Tonks explained empting the last bag of boxes and sitting down next to Harry who was just giving up on his work to watch Sirius's odd expression.
"Yeah I can see now why it took you so long but hay, its not as if you're ever going to get out of here easy with all that stuff!" He laughed trying to show just how pleased he was having Tonks finally moving in.
"Oi, that's top quality junk that is and I bet you get your hands on my tomb raider game." She snapped back playfully, at this Harry merely giggled quietly as it was clear Sirius didn't get the points to the game.
"Anyway you're rooms drying out and I need some help shifting a few things around in our new living room!' He grinned.
'And then we can get whatever this all is set up if you like." He explained waving his hand over all Tonks's electrical toys that he clearly didn't understand at all.
"Yeah it's gonna need a big coffee table or something Sirius. But I think it'll all fit nicely on that one down stairs." She grinned back.
After some quick dinner spent laughing at all Tonks's junk on the dining table, Lupin, who was feeling sociable again helped Sirius magically levitate the better sofa and coffee table up the stairs and shove it in the new living room. It didn't take long for Sirius and Lupin to shove all the old furniture in another room and Harry and Tonks to finish cleaning up the last of the sofa's throwing a few quilts over them all to brighten them up and magic up a few more cushions.
Then at about half past ten they finally got the telly working and sat down together to watch what Sirius and Remus found really funny but what Tonks and Harry realised was just the daily news.
After sleeping in a bit late again the following day, Tonks rushed off to work and the three continued on the mad attempt to make what seemed more of a homely atmosphere. On more than one occasion though, Sirius stopped doing things to ask Harry if he'd rather do something more fun. But after what felt like the fiftieth time he finally accepted that Harry was quiet happy doing it and was still rather giddy by the fact that Sirius was making good on his promise to give Harry a second home.
By the end of the second day though Tonks declared that her room and bathroom was already a hundred times better than her last and started properly putting things away in drawers and laying things out until they felt right. The living room still seemed a bit drab and reminded Sirius a lot of it's previous tenant until Harry persuaded Tonks to let him have some of her old posters and stuck up a few rather fetching Tomb raider posters for the time being to cover the worst bits on the walls.
This time when they all sat down at the new little dinning table to eat up stairs Sirius and Remus finally agreed to sit through one of these two hour long movies (but mainly at first because Harry seemed so impatient to watch Shrek and Sirius refused to be put through it on his own).
A few days later they were taking a break from doing anything much, Remus was laid out in the library reading and Sirius was just thinking about starting to make dinner when Harry jumped on the sofa next to him apparently having given up on some homework for a while.
"Sirius, I was thinking.' He began and Sirius had the nagging feeling that he might not like where this was going to go.
'You know this recipe you have and seem to feel it so important to keep secret."
"No chance Harry I'm not telling. Family secret that for once, I'm proud of." Sirius quickly replied back having more than once already had Harry ask him how he did it.
"Yeah I know, but did you get it from someone in the previous generation?" Harry continued having already expected this from him.
"Yeah, it was my farther on one of the few occasions he took an interest in me." Sirius replied bitterly.
"Yeah and is it one of those daft family tradition things like this house for instance." Harry explained trying to ignore just how bitter Sirius sounded towards his parents.
"I suppose so, why?"
"Well, doesn't your family pass it down to the oldest black son and stuff?"
"Yeah actually why, what are you getting at Harry?" Sirius replied taking the time to look at Harry's blank face, sure he was talking to James for a second then but was so stupid as to say so. This seemed to be going like a very James conversation, Prongs was clearly going some where with it and Padfoot was blindly following to see what happened at the end.
"Well Tonks told me something rather interesting the other day."
"Hmm, I should give her a pat on the back." Sirius added sarcastically.
"Well she told me you changed your will to add me into it." Harry explained but Sirius suddenly sat up and took more notice.
"I've got no intension of dying Harry, I just wanted to make sure you're looked after properly that's all." He explained quickly, really not ready to be talking about death with Harry so suddenly, that conversation needs a bit of preparation he was sure.
"I know, your like your mother.' Harry explained sitting down next to Sirius who raised his eyebrows, he certainly wasn't anything like his mother.
'Yeah you're far too stubborn and annoying to die! Anyway, I was wondering about the house that's all?" He asked plainly but Sirius was feeling a little uncomfortable about the subject of his will and hoped to change it as soon as possibly to something completely different.
"Well you get it, as long as you let Lupin live hear as long as he wants. And you have to feed him, blokes getting skinny again and I can't work out why, he gets just as much steak as always?" Sirius explained but Harry shrugged as if this was a fairly acceptable request.
"Ok, but Lupin only lives here because he's lonely and you give him company, if your dead it kind-of defeats the object.' Harry added quietly and Sirius thought the conversation was over but Harry started it up again.
'So really that makes me the closest thing you have to a son." Harry began a little less blankly.
Sirius however was a bit on the confused side of things as he didn't exactly treat Harry like a son, or at least that was what he thought. He had recently decided that they were more brothers come friends but still, he liked the idea of having Harry as a son, if only he could get over his devoted nature towards Harry's father.
"I guess, you don't mind do you?" He asked a little cautiously remembering how Harry disliked the way Molly tries so hard to destroy his mother's memory. The last thing Sirius ever wanted to was destroy his father's.
"No, I like it, but seen as I'm closest thing you have to a son then really, you should pass the recipe along to me. Keep up the family tradition and all, I mean you don't want a lovely little earner like that dying out do you! And you did say you were proud of it!" Harry grinned down at Sirius as he finally twigged what Harry had been getting at.
"You sneaky little devil!" He shouted grinning away at Harry's cheeky face and grabbing his head into a monkey scrub.
"Hay you're the one with the traditional ex-family and you did say I was closest thing you had, so it only follows logically." Harry squawked as Sirius started tickling his sides to make him giggle with his girly laugh. As he laughed Harry made one last ditch attempt to convince Sirius of Harry's logic.
"Besides Mrs Weasley will go nuts if you teach me how to make it, she's never forgiven you for bringing it out at the last meal we had over the summer." Harry squealed but Sirius suddenly stopped and let Harry sit up properly.
"That does seem to convince me for some un-known reason. Annoying Molly is almost as pleasing as annoying my own mother." He pondered as Harry flattened his hair and smiled pleased with himself at last.
"So you'll teach me?" He asked hopefully sure Sirius couldn't get out of it now.
"Ok, but there are rules to this recipe, you aren't aloud to pass it on to anybody you know. And no flogging the recipe to Fred and George, or Moody for that matter, he'd do anything to get his hands on this recipe. You have to promise!" He added firmly and seriously but Harry pulled out his little finger and held it grinning.
"Pinkie swear!" He grinned taking hold of Sirius's little finger and shaking it firmly.
"Ok, well I've never heard of a pinkie swear but still I'll teach you tomorrow when Tonks goes out to work, she's been pestering me for ages. Said she's my only decent relative, that would truly enjoy having it. I think she was referring to her mother there but you know, I wouldn't be surprised if she already knew how to make it?" Sirius wondered before shrugging the thought off.
"I know." Harry grinned and got up to finish doing his homework at the table.
"How long you been planning to get this out of me anyway?"
"Honestly, I'm hurt, you'd think I'm a scheming little git that thinks up ways to deprive you of stuff early."
"Sorry Harry."
"It was Tonks's suggestion anyway." Harry laughed jumping away from Sirius's out stretched arm and sitting back at the table in his room across the hall to finish off the homework.
The following day Harry laid in extra late, he wasn't sure how long he'd been there but it was about two when he had climbed into bed, fallen asleep and wasn't hungry so didn't wake up.
"Harry are you awake?" Someone was shaking his shoulders and although it was probably Sirius, Harry couldn't be bothered to move yet so pulled the pillow tightly across his head. There was always that nagging feeling that it might be someone trying to get him up for lessons at Hogwarts.
"Harry wake up it's time you eat something." It was definitely Sirius, he was annoyed Harry had stopped up so late again last night reading. Harry easily recognised the rough hands now and the voice was still quiet croaky at times, but it didn't bother him anymore, when Sirius suddenly came close, well it didn't bother him too often these days.
"No I'm asleep." Came from the pillow.
"Good your awake and ignoring me. Aren't you going to come down and eat today?" He wondered looking at his watch. Surely Harry must be hungry by now, Sirius was on his second meal of the day at least.
"Not hungry, staying in bed." The pillow mumbled again.
"Come on you have to eat. You didn't eat much yesterday."
"Why, I don't have a particularly large stomach, unlike yours I don't have to feed it half as much." He replied smirking into his arm at what he knew must be his godfathers slightly annoyed expression.
"Piss off. I'm not fat, I'm just not as skinny as I used to be that's all!" He grumbled checking his stomach again to make sure he didn't have an over hang like Remus was always suggesting.
"I guess, you must have gone really thin before but I'm still not hungry and I'm still not getting out of bed!"
"Harry, you can't lay in bed all day and you go back to school tomorrow and I'm determined to stop you from doing any cleaning today.' He explained sitting on the bed and trying to work out which lump of bedding was Harry and which was just bedding.
'Besides Remus is going to finally have a go on the play station and I need some one who isn't so easy to beat that I get board easily."
"Oi, I beat you yesterday!" Harry snapped sitting up quickly to show his scruffy unwashed hair sticking up all over the place.
"You're hair some times." Sirius could only laugh but seeing Harry's annoyed face moved a bit further out of arm shot just to be on safe side, clearly Harry didn't like the idea of getting up at reasonable hours in the morning if he didn't have too.
"Now look what you've made me do, I've gotta get up now and go for a sodding leak." Harry snapped jumping up out the bed and wondering over to his bathroom.
"You gonna get up now then?" Sirius called from the bed getting his wand out ready to make the bedding disappear before Harry could crawl back into it.
"Fine I'm gonna have a shower, won't be too long." Harry replied pulling his t-shirt off and turning the shower on. Now he was up he knew Sirius would never let him go back to bed. Besides he did feel a bit guilty as he tried not to think of all the good things he could do back at Hogwarts while Sirius was stuck here.
This was how most the week went and although odd, Harry thought it one of the happiest half terms he'd ever had and certainly one of the happiest times he'd ever had around Sirius. He could tell that Sirius had been just as happy seeing Harry as he was coming here, but he had the nagging feeling that Sirius was probably going to appreciate Harry more than Harry openly appreciated him.
Really when he thought about it, Sirius's life was probably going to remain just as bad as it had been for quiet a while yet and his moody annoyance of Harry going back to school was kicking in at breakfast. It was later that normal as Lupin carefully dared to point out but really, it was just as bad as always was and Sirius was merely better at hiding it now.
Later on in the evening, Tonks came back from work a little earlier to find tea cooking itself on the stove in the kitchen (that Sirius had converted just off the dinning room) and three silly little boys trying to out beat each other by causing the most damage on the game. Remus some how seemed to be winning and Sirius was about ready to resort to cheating by hitting his bad knee when he got to the most crucial point when she decided to walk in through the room.
"Honestly you three are like a right set of giddy little kids playing on that thing." She sighed sitting down in her chair with the pink and orange fluffy pillows on it.
"Oi, I am a kid!" Harry called out not looking away from his screen as he button mashed as best he could.
"I have the mental age of a kid!" Sirius added equally addicted.
"I err, it's his fault, he was the one that got me started on this while Harry was doing his homework." Remus added trying to gesture to Sirius while keeping himself in the lead.
"Honestly you three!" She grumbled walking in front of the telly and grabbing Remus's remote to hit the pause button.
"Oi, what you doing?" Sirius suddenly barked outraged that the screen had suddenly frozen and no matter how much he twitched the button's nothing seemed to be happening.
"It's dinner time, so I've hit the pause button." She claimed putting the controller down and switching off the telly to bring all three back to there senses with a bit of a bump.
"What, there's a pause button?" Lupin suddenly asked standing up with Harry.
"Bollocks need a piss!" Harry suddenly half cried then dashed out the room to his bathroom barely closing the toilet door behind him.
"Arr poor thing can't cope." Sirius sighed unable to stand up himself and unaware of the painful urge now rushing through Lupin's body too.
"I have to go too!" He suddenly piped up rushing out the room after Harry with a similar pained expression on his face.
"Oh well looks like it's just me and you Sirius?" Tonks laughed throwing and arm around her cousin's shoulder and walking him over towards the new poky little kitchen, perfect for just four or five at a push.
"That's just how I like it Nymphi." He grinned playing along and forgetting that tomorrow morning his happy little world would have diminished somewhat when Tonks disappears on a particularly long aura job and Harry disappears back off to school.
"You know you're finally behaving like a normal little Sirius." She grinned tickling him under the chin slightly with her first finger.
"What you mean a normal little Sirius? When have I ever been normal?"
"Good point but I meant normal for you.' She laughed hugging up to him warmly.
'What does the E stand for anyway? After all these years I've never found out and mum never told me."
"Never you mind! You're mother never liked it and nor do I, so I'm not telling you!" He laughed back moving around to his full height and looking down at what he always wished was his little sister, still she was way too fit to be a sister, as he found himself being reminded too often these days.
"What, you're not even going to tell precious little Harry? You told him how to make cake!" Tonks laughed seeming a little giddier than normal now.
"How do you know about that?" He suddenly wondered as Tonks straightened his shirt a little over his old t-shirt and poked him repeatedly in the chest.
"Never you mind, but I was really quiet hurt, you told him and not me? I thought I was you're fave girl?" She teased in her whinny girly voice usually only ever used on Lupin to get him turned on. It normally worked too.
"Of course you're my favourite girl, after your mother. And I'm sorry I never told you, here have a bit of cake now to cheer you up." He grinned pulling a bit of cake from under the bowl on the table and gently dropping it into her mouth with a grin.
"Sirius it was dodgy interbreeding like that, that sent most the pure blood's nuts." Harry called from the doorway as he wandered back in from the toilet feeling some what refreshed.
"Harry." Tonks complained slapping him gently around the head and finally letting go of Sirius's neck.
"Careful, you'll make Lupin jealous." He laughed in his odd someone girly voice, ducking the overly pink cushions being repeatedly whacked against his head.
"Honestly I leave them alone with you for five minuets and you've got a fully fledged pillow fight going off!" Lupin complained sarcastically, walking back over to Sirius and his stove, past Harry and Tonks squirming around on the larger sofa in an attempt to shrilly giggle the house to dust before the other.