Remus had become a frequent visitor, and often joined forces with them in their battle against the house. He was, Harry noted, much better at identifying Dark objects than Sirius and dealt with them only after he had examined them safely. Sirius, on the other hand, operated on instinct and a vast knowledge of varied healing spells. Remus also often took the time to show Harry some of the more interesting things they found and gave Harry an old, battered book called Defence for Beginners which Harry found fascinating. Remus had a quiet, wry sense of humour, which contrasted greatly with Sirius' loud, dramatic style.

Remus often ended up cooking when he visited since Sirius was banned from the kitchen after an incident when Sirius made a purple 'soup' which now lived behind one of the cupboards and growled at anyone who approached it. Kreacher would cook when Sirius ordered him to, but would never produce anything that was actually edible, no matter what Sirius did to him and Harry, although he could cook, after years of cooking for the Dursleys, was often banned from chores he was only too happy to do because neither Remus or Sirius wanted to treat Harry remotely like he had been treated at the Durleys. This meant that, when Remus wasn't there, they often got food from the local muggle takeaways.

Sirius left with Remus most full moons so Sirius could be with Remus when he transformed. Harry was fine with this, he had had to look after himself a lot when he lived with the Dursleys, and he knew that Remus' transformations were much easier when he was with Sirius as a dog, but he did miss them when they were gone. One day, he promised himself, one day I'll learn to be an animagus and then I'll join them on the full moons. I wonder if I'll be a stag like my dad?

Professor Dumbledore also occasionally visited, but much less often. Harry knew that he was responsible for keeping up a steady flow of misinformation to keep him and Sirius safe and he would have liked him just for that, but there was something about Dumbledore which made it simply impossible not to like him. Perhaps it was his slightly odd, whimsical sense of humour, or the way he listened to, and respected Harry's opinions. Although he was clearly a very powerful wizard, he did not flaunt it, or attempt to influence others by intimidating or impressing others with it. He was quite possibly the strangest man Harry had ever met, and yet Harry found him quite approachable.

Harry gave a secret smile as he curled up in his bed. They were forming their own little family. Sirius was like a father to him, Remus was like a uncle and Dumbledore, well, he wasn't quite sure what Dumbledore was but it was good.

Sirius stood at the door to Harry's bedroom, watching his sleeping godson. He still couldn't believe his luck. He had Harry, Remus and his freedom. His grief over James and Lily and anger towards Wormtail still infested his every thought, but his despair and desperate desire for revenge was dulled by happiness. Besides, he had known James better than anyone. He knew that Prongs would have wanted his best friend and his son safe and happy much more than he wanted his death to be avenged. He could allow himself to be happy.

Remus curled up in his own bed, amazed at how well he was feeling just after the full moon. He hadn't felt this well since his school days. He closed his eyes, allowing his mind to drift back to the time before war, before loss, to a time when the Marauders were kings. His mind drifted forwards again, to Sirius and Harry. Sirius was not the person he used to be, loss, grief, guilt and Azkaban had damaged Sirius beyond repair, and although Sirius was his friend, Remus had to admit that Sirius sometimes teetered on the edge of insanity. Both Remus and Sirius knew that the only thing holding him back was Harry.

Remus felt extreme happiness and sadness when he thought of Harry. Harry who had suffered so much at such a young age, lost both his parents in the most brutal way. The pain could have been less, perhaps even nonexistent, if Harry had been brought up in a family that loved him. But he hadn't. With the Dursleys he had known nothing but hate and pain, pain which still affected him despite Sirius' and his best efforts. And yet Harry had a remarkable capacity to love and trust despite his upbringing. He was the glue that held them all together.

Remus also found Harry an intelligent and engaging child, awakening the teacher in him and enjoyed spending long afternoons teaching him all he knew, although he found that Harry's natural skill was, like him, Defence Against the Dark Arts, although they couldn't do any practicals since Harry was too young and didn't have a wand. He had also displayed the usual bursts of magic that all young wizards did but Remus was pleased to say that, after a lot of time and effort, Remus had managed to teach some control over his instinctual magic. Harry had succeeded in breaking Sirius' mug whilst he was drinking from it. After they had spent a long time laughing about it, Sirius attempting to look annoyed, but failing, Harry had been exhausted and Remus worried that he was pushing Harry too far. Sirius told him not to worry.

The day Harry's letter arrived was a day that started like any other, then an owl that Sirius immediately recognised as one of the Hogwarts owls arrived and chaos reigned. Sirius grabbed the owl out of the air and ripped of the letter which did not please the owl, which immediately started pecking Sirius. "Harry," yelled Sirius, trying to shield himself with his arm, "Hogwarts letter. Get off me you stupid-" Harry heard a yelp of pain as he hurried down the stairs to see Sirius mid battle, but all of Harry's attention was drawn by the letter Sirius was holding with a very familiar crest on it,

"My letter!" Harry cried happily and leapt on Sirius. Sirius, who was already unbalanced by the owl promptly fell over. The owl saw this as the perfect opportunity to retreat, but neither Harry nor Sirius noticed as Harry ran off with his letter and tore it open.

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Sirius ran over to join Harry as he read the long awaited contents of his letter. He noticed that while the first two pieces of parchment were the standard introduction letter and list of equipment, there was a third. After reading the first two Harry picked up the mysterious third and read.

Dear Harry and Sirius,

I hope you are both well. The Ministry, and everybody else who is not Remus, you two or myself has been informed that Harry is currently staying with a wizard named 'Canis' and, for his own safety, as little information as possible is being released as to his whereabouts or the identity of 'Canis'. This will be Harry's cover story whilst at Hogwarts.

As for Harry's equipment I have arranged for Hagrid to accompany Harry to Diagon Alley, Sirius should be able to accompany you as a dog. I think 'Snuffles' would be a good name for the dog. May I say, Harry, that it will be a pleasure to see you at Hogwarts at last.

All the best,

Albus Dumbledore

Sirius was silent for a moment, then burst out, "I can't be called Snuffles," Harry gave a mischievous grin,

"I think it suits you," he ruffled Sirius' hair, then ran away before Sirius could react.

Dear Moony,

Got my Hogwarts letter today, with an extra letter from Professor Dumbledore. The cover story is that I'm staying with a man called 'Canis', but not much information is being released 'for my safety'. When Sirius is being Padfoot, he's to be called 'Snuffles'. Sirius isn't to pleased about it, so I think it would be very bad idea if you teased him about it, like if you gave him pink bows for his hair or called him 'Mr Snuffles' in a baby voice, because he might get upset by it.

Thanks for the book on simple charms, I'll try some out when I get my wand. I tried some wandless like you suggested, but they didn't work.

Harry

Remus roared with laughter as he read Harry's letter. He had to love Professor Dumbledore's sense of humour, and Harry, well, he was James' son through and through Not to mention the fact that he had been brought up by Sirius.

Dear Harry,

Don't worry about not being able to wandless charms. Like I said before you're only meant to start wandless magic in Sixth year. The fact you can do some magic deliberately is a great achievement.

As for our dear friend Snuffles, don't worry. I solemnly swear not to tease him in the slightest.

Remus

P.S If you slip the blank piece of parchment attached to this letter into Sirius' pocket it definitely won't emit an old ladies' voice calling for her precious Snuffles.

Severus Snape paced his office. He was even crankier than usual and none of the other Professors had any doubt why. This was the year Harry Potter was coming to Hogwarts. The year that James Potter's son, his most hated rival was coming to Hogwarts. This was the year, though only Professor Dumbledore and himself knew the significance of it, and Snape was determined to always keep it that way, that Lily Evans' son. No, thought Snape, not Evans, not anymore. The bitterness of his greatest mistake washed over him once more, stronger than usual. Because this was the year that Lily Potter's son was coming to Hogwarts.

There was a soft knock on the door. Snape, in even less of a mood than usual to bother with social niceties, waved his hand and the door swung open. His back was to the door, but he had no doubt as to who was standing in it's frame and, sure enough, Albus Dumbledore's voice assaulted his ears,

"It does not do to dwell on the past Severus,"

"I was not dwelling on anything," he snapped back, ignoring the fact the it was plainly obvious to anyone within a fifty mile radius that he was dwelling.

"I know," said Dumbledore, with perhaps the merest traces of anger, "that it would be useless to remind you that Harry is not his father? That you cannot resent the past forever?"

"Yes I can," replied Snape, knowing and hating the fact that he sounded like a petulant child. Dumbledore sighed,

"All I ask, Severus, is that you do not judge on what you first see, no matter, who or what it may remind you of. To all that have met him, and in that I include myself, Harry seems an unassuming and likeable boy. Please do your best not to hate him outright." Dumbledore left the room and Snape finally turned around, watching the Headmaster walk away.

Albus Dumbledore visited Grimmauld Place a few days later. Harry rushed to greet him, "Ah, Harry," he said, then looked up to see Sirius, "Sirius. I have come to arrange Harry's trip to Diagon Alley. Hagrid is waiting for you in the Leaky Cauldron at this moment. Sirius should be able to accompany you as Snuffles -"

"Padfoot," Sirius growled. Dumbledore appeared not to have heard him,

"- without arousing suspicion. I also came to give you this, Harry," Dumbledore pulled something from under his cloak. It was silvery grey and almost like water, Dumbledore handed it to Harry. It wasn't like anything else he had ever touched, it felt like water and yet was, undeniably, solid. Sirius moved forward, "James' invisibility ..." he trailed off,

"Indeed it is," replied Dumbledore, uncharacteristically solemn, "it was in my possession when he died. I'm afraid I had quite forgotten about it. It is time it was returned to you Harry, after all it is rightfully yours," the twinkle returned to Dumbledore's eyes, "use it well."

Harry took very little time to decide that the Invisibility Cloak was the greatest invention the world had ever known. Sirius showed how to fold it so it would fit into his small pocket and told him stories of the mischief they had got up to with the Cloak. Harry listened, rapt, already imagining creeping about, invisible, in the dead of night.

Sirius spent the rest of the day searching and Harry didn't see much of him him until he finally emerged holding a small grubby package. Harry opened it. It was a mirror, Sirius grinned at Harry's confused look, "It's a two way mirror," he explained, "I've got the other one. If you ever have an emergency or just need to speak to me secretly you say my name into it. Me and James used to use them when we were in separate detentions. Most of the time you can use owls if you want to speak to me or Remus though." Harry nodded, his excitement mounting as he prepared to enter the wizarding world once more.