Well here you go guys, chapter 4. We finally get our first glimpses of adult Sirius and Severus interaction with each other, hope you enjoy. Happy reading.
Disclaimer: I, unfortunatly, do not own Harry Potter nor anything associated with the Harry Potter series or Warner Bros. productions and can only take credit for what my own mind has come up with.
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When December 23rd finally came, Harry was flooed straight to the living room of Grimmauld Place and exited the fireplace, walking right into the fatherly embrace of his godfather, Sirius Black.
Sirius pushed Harry to arms length to look him over, a big grin on his face and his eyes twinkling with love and pride at the 15 year old Gryffindor.
Harry was actually surprised that he didn't have to force his own grin at the sight of Sirius, feeling the overwhelming sense of love and family that he'd never had in his life since his parent's died and until Sirius had returned, remembering the memories from the pensieve he'd been secretly viewing for weeks.
Sirius led him straight into the kitchen for breakfast and filled his plate full of bacon, eggs, sausages and toast. "I'm so sorry you had to wait until now to come Harry, you know I was begging Dumbledore to let me have you straight away but the last few days have been chaos and we both agreed that you deserved a stress free Christmas this year."
Stress free? Harry though. Oh how little he knows!
Harry hadn't been stress free since he'd delved into that very first memory and suddenly the images of the last time he'd seen Sirius burned in his mind and he had to quickly excuse himself to run to the bathroom. Sirius looked at him curiously when he returned after obviously having been sick, but mentioned nothing and simply handed him a small pepper up potion to settle his stomach.
Harry found himself examining Sirius closely over the next few hours, watching his every move and expression as they played a few games of wizards chess, ate lunch, talked about Hogwarts and the Order, ate dinner and wrote letters (Harry's to Ron and Hermione and Sirius' writing to someone unknown) but Harry decided against asking Sirius who he was writing to as the wizards face crunched up into concentration.
It was 8:00pm when Harry finally excused himself to go to bed, feigning tieredness at the journey and the day they'd spent together and he gave Sirius a quick hug and walked as calmly as possible to his rooms.
When he reached the second floor room he threw himself on his bed and stared at the ceiling, allowing all his observations and some bits of the memories fall back to him as he mulled over how exactly he was going to ask Sirius exactly what had happened between him and Snape, knowing that if he didn't find out it would drive him crazy.
However, before he even had time to register how tiered he truly was, he slipped into a fitful sleep still fully dressed.
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It was very dark in the bedroom when Harry woke up to find him self stretched out on his bed in Grimmauld Place, still fully clothed. He glanced at the watch on his wrist to find it was 11:45pm and Harry found that he was very thirsty.
Quickly changing into a pair of burgundy pyjama pants and his favourite gray tshirt, Harry left his room and quietly padded down the stairs, not wanting to wake any of the sleeping portraits, especially not the one of Sirius' mother which would no doubt wake the entire house as well as his Godfather.
But when he reached the bottom step, instead of finding the downstairs dark and empty, he could see the flickering of the fire through the crack in the door and smiled to himself, thinking Sirius must've fallen asleep in his favourite arm chair as he often did.
Harry was about to go and wake him so that he could go to bed, when he froze in his place realising he could hear voice coming from the crack in the slightly a jar door. The teenagers heart rate sped up so much when he recognised that silky, sarcastic tone from inside the living room as belonging to his Potions teacher, Professor Snape. Immediately curious, Harry strained his ears to try and catch every word, careful not to move or make a sound so that he could eavesdrop on their conversation.
- Inside the Living Room-
"...can't possibly expect you to do anything about it though, can they?" Sirius' voice was grave and wavered, his worry for the other man in his every tone.
Snape frowned and dropped his gaze to the floor, "He can do what he wants, I'm afraid I have absolutly no say in what he chooses to demand of me."
Sirius lept out of his seat to stand before the slightly shorter man. (A/N: I know Snape is actually a few inches taller but I prefer him to be slightly shorter then Sirius) He placed a hand on the others shoulder and smiled slightly, "We'll go to Dumbledore...he'll no what to do..."
"Don't you think if I thought that would work I'd have told him already!" Severus snapped, agitated. Sirius drew back slightly but remained quiet, knowing Severus was angry at the situation and not at him. He frowned but waited for the younger man to continue. "Albus' main focus is to protect Harry, he is the priority here, not me."
- Out in the hall-
Harry gasped slightly at the mentioned of his name. Not only because he had been thrown into the conversation unexpectedly, but because he'd never once heared Snape refer to him as Harry, it had always been Potter or Harry Potter.
-Back in the Living Room-
Sirius took Severus' hand into his and held onto it tightly, trying to relay some sort of comfort to his former school enemy. Severus looked downcast and it hurt Sirius to see him feeling so helpless.
"Harry is the prioriety of many people Sev. Me, Albus, Remus...all of the Order, we're all working to keep him safe as well as win this war." Sirius placed a small kiss to the back of Snape's slim hand.
Severus shook his head slightly, gazing into the flames in the hearth so he didn't have to look at the other man when he spoke, "I promised her Sirius...I promised her that I would keep Harry safe..." Severus closed his eyes for a moment and drew in a breath, "...I've done alot of things in my life that I regret, but I will not break that promise. Not to her...not to Lily."
-Back in the hall-
Harry's knees almost gave way as he slumped against the wall, shocked at the revelation that Snape had promised his mother to protect him.
It was something Harry didn't fully understand. He'd known Snape had been friends with his mother before he'd called her 'that name', but Harry was sure exactly how deep that friendship had been.
But for Snape, his most hated teacher who'd always shown great contempt towards him in the past, to promise his mother that he would keep her only child safe, who was also the son of Snape's most hated man in the world, they must have been even closer then he'd have ever imagined.
-Back in the Living room-
Severus slumped onto the couch, Sirius beside him who wrapped his arms around the smaller man in a comforting embrace, happy that Severus allowed himself to relax into the hug and rest his head on the broad shoulder.
Sirius kissed the top of his head softly and smiled, "Lily would be proud of the way you've protected Harry for all these years, so would James. I know I am." Severus nodded weakly but did not smile, "But you know as well as I do, if Lily were here she'd slap you silly and reprimand you for not taking care of yourself as well."
Severus laughed softly. The sweet sound was odd coming from the usual sarcastic, emotionless man, but it was music to Sirius' ears and as it always did, left him with a wide happy smile plastered across his face.
"She always did take great joy in mother henning me, I think bossing me about was one of her favourite pass times when she wasn't studying." The small smile spread across his face as he remembered his best friend. The suddenly the smile dissappeared and Severus heaved a shaky breath, obviously trying to hold back the pain that came from the loss of his friend.
Sirius knew the shaky breath meant Severus was forcing down tears he'd rather not shed, and he lay another gentle kiss on the other's forehead, resting his cheek to the top of the raven hair and whispered, "I miss them too."
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Water having been completely forgotten Harry hauled himself as quietly as possible back up to his room and shut the door, collapsing on his bed once more.
His own face was streaked with tears that had fallen when he'd heared the two men discussing his parents so fondly, and then just like them it had broke his heart knowing he'd never see them and he'd never have those memories of them that Sirius and even Snape had.
Harry looked at his favourite photo of his parents, dancing in a park somewhere in London, propped up on his bedside table. Happy smiles on their faces, the indentical blazing green eyes stared back at him from his mother's smiling face and for the second time that night, Harry curled up on his bed and fell asleep, with one last whisper of, "I miss you."
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A/N: I've just cried writing that last bit about Harry talking to his parents' photo. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and please do review as they make me very happy.
I hoped you enjoyed the little bit of tenderness between Sirius and Severus, because it's not going to last long...that's all I'm saying...