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You will be getting roughly a chapter a day.

I am trying to finish off ATSR so I won't be doing double chapters here for a few days.

I am not JKR

Chapter Eight

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Sirius climbed the stairs and walked into the Gryffindor themed room. He sat Harry on his feet in the center of the room and went to the chest.

"Alright Harry, what would you like to wear today? I have a blue romper with a dragon, jeans and a jumper, or this fuzzy bear thing that Uncle Remus bought?" he turned and looked at the boy, who had found his crayons and was eating one. "No, don't eat that. Honestly. Well at least you are moving about now. Alright let's go with dragons." He said as he pulled the red crayon from the vice like grip.

"No?" Harry repeated.

"That's right, no. We can't eat crayons."

Harry looked completely confused, Sirius thought back and was fairly certain this was the first time he had ever told the child no. Harry didn't seem to understand the concept coming from Sirius' mouth.

"Mummeee bye, Moo Moo bye. All gone." Harry replied, holding his hand up in the air and looking around himself like he was lost.

"Effing hell I should have just let you eat the sodding crayon." Sirius muttered. "Come on, let's change your clothes, you can't wear pyjamas all day. We will get dressed and play and then Uncle Remus will come home and play with us." He said, lifting him and beginning to strip him of his greasy jammies. "How does one manage to get so messy eating bangers and eggs? I wouldn't have thought it to be a messy meal. Look it is even in your hair. I think you are going to need another bath kid."

"Baf." Harry parroted.

Sirius smiled. He was glad to see him talking, even if he was only being repetitive and unemotional for the most part. The Harry he remembered was a chatterbox, he babbled consistently and was overly animated. He wondered how long until he became that child again, or even if he ever would.

"Do you think we can keep from flooding the floor today?" he asked as he held out his hand and led him into the bathroom.

"No." Harry replied, as if he had intentionally answered the question.

Sirius burst into true laughter. "You are probably right."

As it turned out, Harry was right, when they left the bathroom Harry, the floor and Sirius were dripping wet and Sirius had forgotten a towel, he was slipping and sliding across the wood floor, trying to hold an extremely slippery one year old.

"You know, you should have come with an instruction manual." Sirius said as he searched his pockets with his free hand for his wand. "Bollocks, it's in the lock box in the kitchen." He grumbled.

So much for using it to dry up the floor, he thought. He grabbed a towel from the linen cupboard, covered Harry's back to keep him warm and hurried back to the changing station, though not before Harry wet his godfather's undershirt even more.

"Ack!" he yelled, causing Harry to burst into tears and flinch, trying to pull away. "Shit, I'm sorry baby, come here, I didn't mean to yell." He said, trying to soothe the hysterical child.

He could never remember Harry going hysterical from yelling or loud sounds, honestly, if he came face to face with those muggles he was going to be put into Azkaban for muggle torture. Harry remained distressed, which made it all the harder to pin a nappy on him as he was trying to curl away from Sirius.

"Shhhh….Please baby boy, shhhhh." He said, trying not to show how the tears were upsetting him.

Before dressing him, Sirius pulled his shirt off and threw it into the hall. He buttoned Harry into the one piece outfit and carried him into his room so he could change. He sat the whimpering boy in the play pen where he instantly fell silent. Sirius looked into the stricken face as Harry sat down into the back corner and popped his thumb into his mouth.

"Damn it, back to square one." He muttered as he quickly pulled out a pair of jogging pants and a long sleeved cotton shirt. "What do you say we go for a walk? I know your Uncle Remus made me buy some cold weather contraption to put you in. Come on, it will be fun." He said, picking Harry up from the play pen and attempting to smooth his unruly hair. "Hmmmm, you do have your daddy's hair." He said offhandedly. He stopped when he saw Harry's face fall.

"Daddy bye." He said softly.

Sirius sighed, he hoped it wouldn't always feel like this, like every mention of it was tearing out his heart. "Yes, your daddy went bye."

"Mummy bye." He said even quieter as they made their way down the stairs.

"Yes, mummy went bye with Daddy." Sirius affirmed.

"Moo Moo bye."

Sirius sat him on the counter in the scullery as he grabbed the thick jumpsuit and began to stuff Harry's legs and arms into it and then followed it with the littlest trainers he had ever seen and a hat. He handed him the stuffed lion he had grabbed off the still messy table.

"No, Uncle Remus went to work. He is coming home in a bit." He corrected and he stood him on his feet at the door before donning his leather jacket and holding out his hand. "No don't take the hat off." Sirius sighed, pushing the hat back over the silky messy hair.

"No! No! No!" Harry began to wail, throwing himself at Sirius' legs.

"What, what is wrong?" Sirius asked, frantically looking to make certain he hadn't zipped up his chin or something.

"No bye, No Bye, No bye Siri, no bye Siri." He cried.

Understanding setting in, he picked him up and carried him through the door into the side garden, Harry thrashed in his arms trying to get back into the house.

"Harry shhhhh, look you are coming with me. We are going to walk, just walk, me and you. I am not going bye, me and you little bit, going for a walk. No bye bye. Harry and Uncle Sirius are going for a walk." He said in a calm voice, knowing that if he showed any exasperation or heightened emotions that it would only make the situation worse.

He walked in the direction of the town. It was only a ten minute walk to reach the populated areas. As they walked Harry quieted and began to look around, though he was still sucking his thumb and the tear tracks could be seen on his face, he was gripping Godric for all he was worth. They continued walking until they reached the shops and Sirius allowed Harry to walk while holding his hand. He couldn't stop the chuckle at the waddle the cold weather suit caused Harry to have.

"No bye." Harry said fervently, seemingly to himself but out loud none the less.

"He sure is a cutie." A feminine voice said.

Sirius turned to the side to be face to face with a stunningly pretty blonde. She was holding the hand of a little girl who looked to be a year or so older than Harry.

"Thank you." Sirius said genuinely.

"You are English?" she asked.

Sirius picked Harry up and adjusted him onto his hip. "We are, we just moved here."

"I heard him talk, there are several people who speak English but few who actually are. He really is adorable, his eyes are amazing, you are going to have your hands full in a few years with that one, daddy." She said with a smile.

"Oh, well, he is actually my godson, but yes, I believe he is going to be quite the troublemaker in the future." He said with a smile, he had never flirted with a mum before, who knew Harry could be such a good accomplice.

"Well you are a good Godfather for watching him. He does look like he could be yours though. Are you bringing him to story hour for his mum and dad?"

"Er story hour?" he asked thickly.

"At the library, story hour is in roughly 15 minutes, they read a book to the children and to a puppet show, the little ones love it."

"I didn't know they did something like that." He said honestly.

She smiled warmly, "Well you are welcome to join Sammi and I if you like, I'm Jessalyn." She said, holding out her spare hand.

"Sirius, and this is Harry. It is good to meet you." He replied, "We would be happy to join you."

"They read the story in French." She said with a slight frown as they began to walk.

"Eh, I don't think he will care either way."

"Do you watch him a lot? Or is this a onetime kind of thing?"

"Oh, well, actually. It is hard to explain, I- well- I have custody of him." He stammered, damn he should have just told her that he was his kid, it was just so natural to say that he was his godson he didn't even think about it.

"Oh." She said, obviously surprised.

"His parents, they uhm, well, they, just recently, there was a break in of sorts…Well, I guess he is mine now you could say." He finished lamely as they came upon an old stone building with enormous steps.

"DOWN!" Harry insisted.

Sirius obliged and sat him on his feet where he began to climb the steps one at a time, Sirius smiled when the little girl called Sammi took Harry's hand and walked beside him.

"Now that, has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen." Sirius said, smiling, wishing James could see his 17 month old picking up girls.

"It really is. I am sorry for your loss, both of your losses I should say."

He looked down at his hands before looking back up into her brown eyes. "Thank you." He said simply, there really wasn't anything else he could say.

Hours later found them sitting in the floor of the sitting room, the rubberized dragon figures flying low to the ground and Harry randomly grabbing one and chewing on it. Sirius turned towards the sound of the front door opening, knowing that it could be no one but Remus.

"Hey." He called.

Remus came through and smiled at the look of astonishment on Harry's face when he saw him. "Hey squirt." He said as he lifted him into his arms. "How was your day today?"

"No." Harry chanted in a singsong voice.

"That good huh?" Remus snickered as Sirius laughed.

"That actually sums it up quite well." He said as he laid his head back onto the seat of the sofa.

"It looks like you set off a box of fireworks in here, what happened?" Remus asked as he looked around at the chaos that was the house.

He could see into the dining room where the breakfast mess still sat from this morning, and a few more dishes which he assumed were from lunch or snacks. There were toys scattered across the sitting room and crayons strewn with the toy dragons across the floor.

"I might as well have. Harry is like a whole box of fireworks himself and he isn't nearly as active as he used to be." Sirius said. "I have to give Jamie credit, Harry, he's not easy."

Remus stifled a laugh as he sat Harry back onto the floor into the fray of flying dragons.

"Yeah well James had something that we don't." he said with a grin.

"Time to get used to him?" Sirius said with only one eye open, "A regular nap schedule? Instructions on how to wiz while holding a squirming child?"

At this Remus did laugh. "No, he had Lily."

"Too right. We need to find us one of those." He mumbled. "Let me just get up and if you will occupy the monster I will clean up the kitchen and figure out dinner."

"Of course. Erm, is there a reason why his teeth are purple?" Remus asked slowly.

Sirius' eyes popped open and he fought Harry's hand open pulling a mauled purple mass from it. "No, you cannot eat crayons." He said in exasperation as Harry quickly stuffed the red crayon from the other hand into his mouth. "Noooo! No more crayons for you." He cried, prying Harry's mouth open and pulling the crayon from within.

Harry looked up and smiled at Remus, showing off his colorful smile. He shook his head and cocked it to the side and said, in a clear, concise voice, "No."