Author's Note: The Tonks family is going to play a big part in these stories. Since Sirius and Andromeda were close as children and Andromeda is a mother with a young child, it makes sense that Sirius would go to her with child-rearing questions.

Nymphadora Tonks will always be called Dora in these stories.

This story takes place in late fall/early winter 1981 so Harry is about 16/17 months old, Dora is about 8 since she was born in 1973 which would put her in second grade/year for primary school.

Also, the amount of money Sirius offers Remus come out to about $100 (USD) a week.

This story isn't about Harry exclusively, but it is setting up events in the story that will be important.

If you had told Remus while he was at Hogwarts that within a few years, Sirius Black would become a settled, responsible adult raising a child, he would've told you to quit stealing sips of Madame Rosmerta's mead; but to everyone's shock, including his own, that's exactly what had happened.

Finding out that Peter had betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort had been one of the worst days of his life, but the pain had been tempered by the fact that Harry was alive and in Sirius' care, though he'd heard that there had been a major falling out between Sirius and Dumbledore about where Harry was going to live, but Sirius refused to talk about it.

Still, he had arrived at Sirius' home fully prepared to find his friend completely overwhelmed by the responsibilities of caring for a child, but to his surprise, he found Sirius feeding Harry in the kitchen. Harry was burbling happily, seemingly unaware that his entire world had changed and that people were talking about him in hushed whispers.

"Remus." Sirius said good-naturedly as he coaxed Harry into eating the pureed peas Andromeda had made. Harry's little face screwed up with dislike but he kept eating.

"How's it going?" Remus asked with a smile as he watched Sirius feed Harry.

Sirius sighed, "It's going. We've had a few issues, but nothing horrible."

Remus frowned, "What sorts of issues?"

Sirius sighed, "Harry's been having...nightmares about the night Lily and James died. He'll wake up crying for no reason and keeps looking for Lily and James." He paused for a moment, a sad smile on his face, "Andie's assured me that he'll grow out of it, but it doesn't make me feel better."

Remus smiled slightly, then his smile turned into a worried frown, "Any word on Pettigrew?" He still couldn't believe that Peter had turned traitor.

Sirius shook his head, "Not yet. I'm amazed he hasn't turned up yet. A life sentence in Azkaban has to be preferable to what the Death Eaters would do to him." He sighed, "I had to tell Moody and Scrimgeour about James, Peter and I being Animagi."

Remus' eyes widened, "Why?"

"I had to tell them what to look for when they looked for Pettigrew and the rest of the story came out."

Remus bit his lip, "What're they going to do to you?"

Sirius shook his head, "Nothing." At Remus' surprised look, Sirius smiled grimly, "After I explained why we did it and the fact that I'm Harry's guardian, they're not going to turn me in. I have to register, but other than that, they're not going to do anything to me. Besides, considering what happened to the Longbottoms, and that there are still Death Eaters running around, an unregistered Animagus is hardly a blip on the radar."

Remus sighed with relief and sat down to watch Sirius feed Harry.

"Alright, Prongslet," Sirius said as he began scraping the last of the peas out of the bowl, "One more bite and you can have your pudding." Harry, Remus noticed, was beginning to look a little mutinous over the peas, which he'd never liked.

After Harry had been fed, they played with him for a little while before putting him to bed. Remus was amazed to find that Sirius had set up a nursery almost identical to the one James and Lily had set up in their home.

"Merlin's beard, Sirius," Remus said in wonder, "It looks exactly like his room in Godric's Hollow. How'd you do it."

Sirius shrugged, "Undetectable Extension Charm and a Lightening Charm." At Remus' surprised look, he smiled, "I didn't know how long we would be in hiding, so I just packed the whole nursery into the diaper bag."

Remus laughed, "I wonder what Andromeda thought of that."

Sirius smiled, "She laughed, actually. She and Ted have been real god-sends, I probably would've lost my mind if not for them."

They sat down in the living room for a long moment before Remus spoke, "What happened between you and Dumbledore?"

Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "He wanted to take Harry to Lily's sister and her husband to raise."

Remus' eyes widened, "Lily's sister? The Muggle who hates magic? Dumbledore wanted her to raise him?"

Sirius nodded, "Yeah, something about blood wards and sealing Lily's sacrifice. I told him that there was no way I was allowing him to take Harry to be raised by a magic-hating Muggle and hope that Harry comes out alright. We had a big argument and I finally had to draw my wand on him and told him that since Lily and James were both blood relatives of mine, he could do the wards at my home or he could leave but that Harry wasn't going to Petunia's."

Remus raised his eyebrows, "And Dumbledore agreed?"

Sirius shrugged, "He didn't have a choice. My rights as Harry's godfather and a fully trained wizard trump Petunia's rights as a Muggle blood relative under wizarding law. Even Dumbledore would never be able to convince the Wizengamot that a family of magic-hating Muggles would be more appropriate guardians than me and he knows it. No Wizengamot would choose Muggles over a Wizard, especially a member of the Black family. Thankfully, the Black family name still has some clout and esteem, even with so many of them and the family branches fighting for Voldemort or supporting him."

Remus nodded, admiring his friend's determination to protect his godson at all costs, even standing up to Albus Dumbledore to do it.

"So, now what? What're you going to do now that Voldemort's gone and you've got custody of Harry?"

Sirius sighed, "I'm going to become an Auror. I don't want to be like my parents, have so much money and so many elves that I just sit around and do nothing. Moody's already accepted me and I'll begin training as soon as I can find someone to watch Harry while I'm at work."

"Are you going to ask Andromeda or Molly?" Andromeda would jump at the chance and Molly had plenty of children, so Harry would have plenty of people to play with.

"Actually, I was going to ask you," Sirius said. At Remus' surprised look, he smiled, "Andromeda's planning on going back to work at Flourish and Blotts part time now that Dora's older and Molly's got enough on her plate already with seven children, including an infant and three toddlers and apparently, the twins are a real handful on their own and Bill won't start school until next fall."

"But what about my 'furry little problem'?" Remus said softly.

"What about it? Moony, your furry little problem only becomes a real problem once a month and that's at night. Andromeda will watch Harry if I have to work late and it's the full moon and if she can't do it, Ted loves children. Plus, Andromeda was talking about asking you to tutor Dora anyway." Seeing Remus' reluctance, he sighed, "Remus, I know you felt bad about taking money from James, but he was going to make the same offer once it was safe for him and Lily to come out of hiding. Lily wanted to become a healer and James and I were going to become Aurors. They trusted you and so do I and so does Andromeda. It'll be 10 galleons a week plus room and board if you'd like and money for any supplies you need."

Remus bit his lip, taking a monthly allowance from James and not really doing anything to deserve it had always bothered him, though James had insisted that it was no big deal and Lily had agreed. At least caring for Harry and tutoring Dora would let him feel like he was earning his pay.

"Alright, I'll do it," he said.

Sirius' face split with the beautiful smile that Remus remembered, "Wonderful! I'll Floo Andromeda and let her know. Do you want to have a room here or do you want to keep your flat?"

Remus bit his lip, "I'll keep my flat for now, thanks."

They talked a bit more before Remus decided that he needed to get home.

As the Floo network whisked him away to his flat, Remus found himself happy for the first time since Lily and James died, he had a job, he was going to live his dream and after everything, Sirius trusted him. Life was good.

The End