Chapter 3
That night was nothing if not a whirl wind for every single person involved. When they had got up that morning, Vernon and Petunia Dursley had been the main care givers of two boys and not one. Forty eight hours before had, Remus Lupin had lived alone – now he had not only one flat mate, but two – and one of them a rather little one.
On their return from Surrey, Dumbledore decided it was going to be best if he were to leave the two marauders and the little marauder to one another for a while; he would see them the next day to talk through how everything was going to work now. After all, it was not as if Harry Potter was a normal little boy.
Despite what Sirius Black seemed to believe, he was going to need protection asides from himself.
Yet the events of those few hours affected no one as much as they did Harry James Potter. He had willing gone away with someone from his aunt and uncles after speaking a handful of sentences. He had not even talked to Remus. All he did know was that when they had been alive, his parents had known these men. And that was good enough for him.
Maybe it was because he had been the one he had dreamt of the night before or he had been the one he had seen first when he had opened the cupboard; or because he had been the one his parents had named as his godfather but as soon as they left number four, it became quite apparent that Sirius was the one Harry wanted to be with rather than Remus, who he had to admit, he did feel slightly guilty for perhaps pushing out of the lime light a little.
Somewhere inside of him Harry had known he was going to come, Sirius told himself. He had known it.
Nevertheless, Harry was quite tired by the time they were driving home. Remus and Sirius had spoken about it and they thought the right thing to do was drive to Privet Drive to get Harry. They had no idea how much he knew about who he was and where he had come from and they had not wanted to over load him. Not on the first night.
And so while Remus drove them from Surrey to London, Harry had sat in the backseat next to his newly found godfather. Sirius had not even known it was possible to feel the amount of relief that he did. The hurts of the years he had suffered of late seem to melt away as he put arm round the boy.
It was quite apparent that the boy was nothing if not bewildered by everything that had happened to him in the last few hours and yet for a reason he did not think he was able to explain to himself he had not felt so safe – in forever.
The man who had got him out of the cupboard – did he say his name was Sirius? – had kept one arm about him all the time they had been together and he had to say he liked that. He liked the feeling that after all this time someone was there for him and he knew Sirius was not going to leave him. He just knew it.
And it was a comfort.
His eyes were glazing over as they drove through the streets. Both adults knew they had a very tired boy on their hands. Harry was clearly fighting it though.
"You can go to sleep you know Harry." said Sirius to him.
Harry look up at him with huge innocent eyes. He did not know what to say to him or what was going to happen to them now. All he knew was that he trusted him. He really did.
Nodding silently, Harry leaned into Sirius. He did not want to think anymore. It was giving him a headache.
"Did you know my mummy and my daddy?"
"Yes pup. I knew them very well."
Harry nodded and leaned even further against him though it was tentatively. Harry was not used to this. Humans giving him affection, adults being there for him.
"Not long now Harry," said Remus from the front of the car. As soon as they got in, they were going to have to put him to bed.
Catching Sirius' eyes in the mirror, Remus smiled. Their thoughts were along the same lines. That a lot more was suddenly right with the world.
Despite the fact he had only been with them for a couple of hours, Harry was happy enough to fall asleep in Sirius' arms. The exhausted six year old was carried into the flat by his godfather.
Sirius thought he was going to die of happiness. Though the treatment of his godson was gnawing away inside of him, he could suppress those thoughts successfully by comforting himself that Harry was back with them. And as long as he was with them then he was going to be safe.
He was always going to keep him safe and he was never going to allow anything to hurt his boy.
Not James' boy.
He loved him too much to see him hurt.
Sirius had indeed been planning to put his godson straight to bed when they had got in but as soon as they got through the door that plan changed. He had been apart from the boy for five years, the longest most miserable years of his life.
And suddenly he was living again. He had his boy and he had his friend and he was alive. He had forgotten what it felt to be so alive.
Knowing that he and Remus were going to stay up for a while anyway, he carried Harry into the living room and put him on the sofa. He was no yet ready to let him out of his arms or his eye sight.
"We did it," Said Remus as it had only just sunk in that they were back with Harry now they were home. After so long of waiting for this day, the werewolf, as Sirius had been when he had got his call out of Azkaban was mistrusting.
But there he was as clear as day. Their best friend's boy was with them. Harry had come home. Sirius had come home. For the first time in years they were all home.
"We really did Moony." Said Sirius as his hand run down Harry's cheek. He had to keep checking the boy was real. "And what is more we are going to keep at it – keep doing it."
They were going to raise Harry to be everything his father had been then and just a little more. He was going to be part of his mother and his father. Remus had no doubt that some of Sirius was going to sink into him as well. But then that was ok. Sirius could be a jerk, but then so could anyone. And Remus knew from the look on his face he had every intention of giving his godson the best of him.
"I am going to go and make the two of us a tea." He knew Sirius would not care if he stayed but part of him felt as if he was intruding on the two of them. After all, it had been Sirius who had been named godfather when Harry had been born and he knew no matter how much Sirius said they were going to raise Harry together, he was always going the boys guardian. It was also only because Sirius was finally out that the two of them had even been able to go and get him. Had Sirius still been in Azkaban, then the three of them would still be thousands of miles apart for years to come.
And that was the last place that any of them wanted to be. After years and years in the wilderness, they had come together.
So no, Remus had to say he was thoroughly grateful to his friend, and that was the reason he felt he had to back off, because if the truth was known then he knew this was Sirius' moment with Harry, not his. And there was not a bone in his body that resented that; there really wasn't.
Every time Sirius looked at his godson it shocked him just how much he looked like his dad.
He had not felt so happy in years and for the first time since he had lost James, Sirius begun to feel the overwhelming grief he had been plagued with lift off of his shoulders just a little bit. He had thought it was always going to hurt, yet the pain dimmed as he held on to his godson. It was there; but suddenly, the pain became bearable.
Harry was everything he had wanted for so long.
Ten minutes later Remus returned into the room with tea. Sitting opposite the other two, he sighed.
"He is going to be so confused when he does wake up you do know that?" Remus warned.
Sirius nodded. He knew Harry had come with him on a bit of a whim… though he did not doubt that no matter when he had gone that he would have always left his aunt and uncle to be with him.
"But he is good boy and he is going to be able to work through it," Said Sirius as he smiled softly. He had the expression of a father who was looking down on his new born baby son for the very first time.
"Well, you are going to have to be really patience with him. We are going to have to take it slowly. It's not as if we are going to be able to introduce him to magic over night and we are going to have to be careful about how we do introduce him to it."
"He is going to love it." Sirius shook his head.
Remus knew he was eager to get going and raise Harry to be the boy his father and mother wanted him to be. But he knew he had to pace Sirius. He was so excitable. Yet somehow they were going to rub along and get it right.
They had too.
Remus had been right, for when Harry woke up the next day he had to pause a moment to remember why he was not in the cupboard. And then he remembered the events of the night before.
The grey eyed man and his friend had come to get him and he had taken him away from his aunt and his uncle. And he had been kind to him.
The last thing he remembered from the night before were the lights going by in the car.
He hadn't meant to go to sleep. In fact, he had wanted to stay up till they were back at the men's flat. But he guessed he had been more tired than he thought he had been.
He looked about the room, for that was what it was. These two men had not put him in a cupboard that was for sure. No, he was in a big bed, like the one his aunt and uncle had. He knew his cousin just had a single. He had slept in a bed bigger than Dudley's!
Running a hand throw his already messing hair he sighed and wondered if he was going to wake up in a minute. But it really seemed to be real.
All of it.
He got out of bed for as soon as he remembered all that had happened the night before; he knew he was far to awake to sleep. He had to get out of bed and make sure they were really real, for until he had seen those two men he did not think he was going to be able to get any rest, even if he did have no plans of going back to bed. He needed to see them for his own peace of mind.
He wanted the proof it was not a fairy tale or a figment of his imagination.
He went out of the open down into the hall way and he had a smile on his face. He was in a new place but from the moment he had got there he felt safer than he ever had at the Dursleys.
He knew he was going to have a good time there straight away. This flat was his home in a way Number Four had never been.
He tried to walk quietly for he wanted them to think that he was a good boy even if his aunt and uncle had already told him otherwise. The last thing he wanted for them to do was to change their minds and send him home, but his naked feet patted against the wood disregarding his wishes.
He peeped into what he guessed was the living room. Looking at the clock, he guessed as the big hand was on the six and the little one was between the seven and the eight that it was half past seven in the morning, about the time on a normal day that he got up and went to school.
He wondered if he was going to have to go to school, now he had moved house. He wondered if he was going to a new one. He was quite a way away from Little Whinging he knew.
He hoped he didn't have to go. He wanted to stay right where he was and not leave ever again.
He had been about to walk into the living room when he changed his mind for on the sofa there was the grey eyed man not that you'd know it right then for his eyes were shut. He had an expression on his face that was the perfect mixture of sorrow and great joy. Harry wondered what had happened to him to make him sad. He did not seem like the sort of man who should be sad but rather one who should always have a smile on his face.
Maybe it was because he had been hypnotized by the fact he had been there at all the night before and he had been so focused on the colour of his eyes but it was only then that he saw the man had very big bags under them. It was as if he had not slept properly in a very long time.
Not wishing to disturb him, Harry wondered away from the room and into the kitchen, wondering what to do and when the men were going to get up for he had a lot of questions for them both. But then they were going to rise in their own time and he did not wish to get them up before.
The kitchen was not quite big as his aunt's was; in fact, the flat was a lot smaller than number four. The stark contrast between the two residences seemed to reflect even further how far away he was from his old life.
Rather than be spotless as the Dursley kitchen was, the dinner plates that his godfather and his friend had used the previous night were still on the side waiting to be washed as were two coffee mugs.
In Harry's eyes the dirt was wonderful.
It was all wonderful.
The six year old felt he might jump for joy.
His whole life had been leading him to this point. He was sure of it – this was where his mum and dad would have wanted him to be if he was with their friends, right?
He was home.
He had been about to sit down when he realized that he needed a drink. Moving one of the dining room chairs over to the sink, he got up on it to turn on the tap. Successfully guessing which of the kitchen cupboards had the glasses in it, one was soon filled with water to clench the little boy's thirst.
But when he made to get out of the stool he wobbled and before he had had a chance to stop it the glass had fell out of his hands and the shards of it danced across the kitchen floor.
Sirius had been asleep when he heard the smash; though not so asleep it did not wake him up. He did not think he was ever going to be a very deep sleeper again. After all, he had a child to look after and he had lived through a war. When he had last been at large if you heard a sound like that at night you did not think twice in the middle of the night. You got your wand out because the chances were it was a Death Eater.
And so trained was he that that was what he did then.
It was as if the moment he had heard it he was cast back in time. It was as if James was alive.
Was this a joke Prongs was playing on him? If it was then he was going to make sure his best friend knew it was not funny.
He had been about to go into the kitchen with his wand held out to threaten who was in there but as he poked his head in he was brought back to earth with an almighty bump.
It was not James who was in the kitchen, though it could have been him if he had had shrinking potions.
But no it wasn't. It was his godson. And as he had been when he had picked him up the night before, he was in tears and something had happened to him to give him the expression as if it was the end of the world and he cursed him to the high heavens because everything he had said had come to nothing. Harry was upset in his care already.
"Hey buddy. What are all the tears about?" he said as he stuffed his wand back into his pocket. Remus was right – he did not want to over load the lad – and he looked as if he was reaching braking point already.
He was about to go into the kitchen when he was joined by Moony, apparently not the only one in the house who was a light sleeper.
The two of them exchanged a worried glance before Sirius rushed into the room. Luckily he looked down and saw the problem before he felt it.
"I'm sorry!" said Harry to him.
Sirius shook his head as he leaned over to take the boy back into his embrace, relieved that it had been no more than a broken glass. After all, glasses were nothing if not replaceable. They were nothing at all like a godson.
Moony to had a look of relief that Harry did not quite understand; he knew had he been back with his aunt and uncle, that he would have gotten told off, not a cuddle.
"That is not a problem little man, no problem at all." Sirius' said to him comfortingly.
In another echo of the night before Harry hide in his godfather's neck as he picked him up. He had been back in his life no more than twelve hours and yet it was more than apparent that it had not only been him who had been longing for the other for so long, even if it was subconsciously for Harry.
Sitting down on the on one of the seats about the kitchen table, he rocked the boy back and forth as Remus cleared up the mess.
"Don't you dare let your little head worry over this, mate." Said Sirius as he held on to him. "It doesn't matter one little bit."
Remus looked at them sadly. He knew if James had lived then Harry would know this was nothing to get upset about. Lily would perhaps scowl a little but a wave of a wand later and it would be fixed.
Yet, both he and Sirius knew it was too soon for that. Far too soon. Even if he had one in his pocket, emotionally, there was no magic wand to help them.
"Uncle Vernon said it was bad when I did stuff like that," Harry said as his voice dropped lower and lower. "He yelled at me... and I didn't like it," Harry confided in his godfather his voice so small it had dropped to a whisper. A deep, low protective growl came out of Sirius before he could stop it, furious at the thought of anyone yelling at his godson. Harry seemed so small.
Even though Sirius seemed to love him as he had always dreamed someone would he still did not know why. Still, he was so scared that this new life was going to end as suddenly as it had begun that he did not ask. That Sirius did care was enough.
"Then do you know what I think?" Remus said from across the table. "I think your uncle is a bad man and a liar, and you don't have to worry about him anymore because Sirius and I here are going to make sure you never had to see him again."
That was a thought that made Harry calmer and he raised a smile…
"You listen to him Harry." said Sirius agreeing as he squeezed the lad lovingly. "Remus was always the smart one even when we were at school. And he doesn't lie," Sirius said before whispering in Harry's ear. "Except when there is a bad smell and he says it wasn't to do with him. Don't let Moony near the baked beans Harry!"
Sirius had been told that laughter was the best tonic for anything when he had been young and it was at that moment as a smile spread across his godson face that he knew it was the truth.
More than anything, now they had Harry they were going to have to make him laugh… every day if they could. For the laughter made the tears stop and when he had calmed down Harry looked curiously across at Remus.
"Why did Sirius call you Moony?"
It was a very good question and one both of the marauders knew they were not going to be able to answer fully that day. But it also proved to them both he had the same quick mind both his mother and his father had possessed. This boy was a Potter through and through there was no doubting it.
"Because in this house," Sirius explained. "We all have to have nicknames, his is Moony. My name is Padfoot and your nickname is going to be pup. Is that ok with you, pup?"
Harry nodded.
"Now how about we get you something to drink and eat?"
"Yes please Padfoot," said Harry. Sirius had never loved the sound of his own name so much as when his godson called him by it.
It was that day that the enormity of the job Remus and Sirius had to do dawned on them. Though they got the feeling not a lot scared Harry, by the end of the day they were in doubt that them getting angry at him did scare him and it was quite obvious that while Harry loved being with them and took all the cuddles he was offered both by Remus and Sirius, he was not relaxed about them at all. He seemed to think if he let his guard down then he was indeed going to put a foot wrong and nothing in his eyes could be worse.
As a result, Sirius was not sure he had met his real godson by the end of that twenty four hours. He had met a lovely, affectionate polite young lad by no mistakes. But he did not think he was the boy he should have been. It didn't mean that Sirius did not love his godson though; that was the furthest thing from the truth imaginable. Indeed he loved Harry as passionately as he had been on the day he had been declared godfather. But he just didn't understand why it was so hard for a six year old to sit on the floor and play with him, for when he had tried to; Harry had been stiff through the whole game of snap.
It seemed Harry just simply didn't understand how to play. And that brought it home to Sirius how important it was that he had a little chat with his aunt and uncle.
But it was going to have to wait, because even if he did want to beat the crap out of Dursley, he had to focus on Harry before everything and everyone else.
Harry did as he was told; Harry ate what was put in front of him; and all in all Sirius was glad when he got to bed so he and Remus could discuss the situation.
"Whatever they did to him they took all of his spirit," Remus sighed as he sat down on the sofa.
"They didn't take it, Moony. They just buried it. It's our job to get it out again," Sirius sighed as he made a list everything they were going to need.
Clothes, toys, food Harry actually liked and wanted to eat... if he was ever going to be able to get him to tell him. Dinner time had been an experience if nothing else.
"He did not ask for one thing the entire day." Sirius said with great frustration. He needed all the patience in the world and yet he had always had minimal amounts.
Sirius looked at Remus and he knew how hurt by everything Remus had been. "I feel so responsible Sirius; if I wasn't Moony once a month then none of this would have happened... if only I could have..."
"No Remus, no one blames you for any of this. If it is anyone's fault, then its mine. If I had kept my head on that Halloween night then I would have been able to start bringing Harry up a lot sooner than I have. But really this is down to three people; Petunia Dursley, Vernon Dursley, and Peter bloody Pettigrew."
Sirius put the quill he had been using down and sighed. He hadn't meant to swear or get so wound up but the fact was he could not stop it. As much as he had been denying it, he had needed his spirited happy godson to put him back together. He had needed Harry to be the strong one for him. And now he found it was the other way round.
"From tomorrow, a new set of rules." He said to Remus. "Tomorrow we bring in magic." He sighed. He had gone day without it and he had hated it. It was hardly a surprise when he had been without it for so long already.
It was time to play by his rules.
They had just been about to go to bed, when as they had been two nights previously they were joined by Albus Dumbledore.
Deep down Sirius knew the headmaster was the last person in the world he wanted to see right then. He knew when the professor had placed his godson in the care of the Dursleys he had done it because he had thought it was for the best and he believed he had done it to protect Harry, not to bring him to any harm.
But that did not change the fact that had happened.
It must have been written on his face because the headmaster looked apprehensively at the animagus.
"Sirius."
"Headmaster."
Remus and Dumbledore nodded there greeting to one another and then a silence took the room in which it became obvious to Albus that perhaps he was not as welcome as he would have liked to have been.
"How has Harry been today?" he asked.
"Putting a brave face on everything but deep down I know he is scared of going back." Sirius said with a protective growl. He was not going to let it happen, but that alone did not stop the fear.
Remus was beginning to understand just how much Harry really was Sirius' pup and how much he was willing to do to protect him. He was going to defend him against any one and anything if he had too. And if he saw the aging headmaster as a threat then he was going to keep Harry away from him, even if Dumbledore meant no harm.
"Well that is understandable. It was a big day for him."
"It was for us all." Remus agreed.
When Harry got up the next morning, he was surprised to see that the shards of the glass he had broken the day before were back on the table when he had thought Moony had put them in the bin. Sirius had been sure to get up at six. He had not wanted a repeat of the previous morning with Harry being the first one up.
He looked with concern at the glass for he did not like to remember when he had done bad things but still Sirius did not look angry at him.
Rather, he kept smiling at him in a way that was comforting beyond words.
"Come here Harry," he said gently and the lad, as he had done the day before, did just as he was told and was soon perched on Sirius' lap.
He noticed a brown stick by the side of the glass.
"What is it? Am I in trouble?" he said.
The fact that he always assumed the worse was something else Sirius intended to stop.
"None at all. It's just, yesterday, Padfoot didn't tell you something which I really want you to understand." He said explained. "Harry... it'll be a little weird a first... but I'm sure you'll like it. Pup, if I told you I could do magic what would you say?"
Harry looked thoughtful perform declaring; "That's really, really cool!"
Sirius had to laugh. Even more than the way he looked, that reaction marked him out as James's son.
Remus watched from the doorway as Harry saw magic performed for the first time in his living memory. A look of amazement covered his face as after a wave of Sirius' wand, the shattered glass was once again made whole.
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