Hello, here's another part. Thank you to those who have been reading. A have got a couple of follows favourites and reviews, so hopefully this one will bring a couple more (it does help me write faster ;) ;) nudge nudge).

There are mentions of abuse in this story, just to let you know. And it'll all be from Sirius' POV from now on.

Remember, I do not own anyone or anything in this story (except the House Elves), but JK Rowling does. And if I were her, I would have done a novella about the Marauders already!

Anyway, that's enough from me, enjoy.

Chapter 2: At the Potter's

"Here you go son, Potter mansion. That'll be 9 Knuts. You want some help with your stuff?"

I shook my head, gave the Knight Bus conductor the money and picked up my backpack (with a shrunken trunk, broomstick and all that jazz inside) and my bundled cloak, and stepped off onto the smooth pavement of the drive leading up to Potter manor. The conductor gave me a shifty look before the Knight Bus sped off; and for a good reason. I guess they don't often get 16-year old boys with all their possessions and a stunned House Elf in the middle of the night. It then started to rain; fantastic. I gripped Sophie closer to my chest and ran to the giant polished wooden front door, my breath getting shorter and my body feeling weaker at every step. My legs were now incredibly stiff, my fingers were worn. Blood was pumping to my brain and my hair was getting matted from the rain. I banged my battered right fist on the door.

"JAMES, IT'S ME, SIRIUS! HELP ME PLEASE! LET ME IN! PRONGS! JAMES! HELP ME!"

I banged the door for about a minute non-stop, crying until my throat was almost completely hoarse. I was starting to think that no one had heard me until I saw a light go on, heard bolts slide and felt the door shift to reveal James in his pyjamas. Out of both relief and exhaustion, I collapsed at his feet, still crying and still managing to hold Sophie close to my chest, trying to cradle her like a child. My vision was starting to go blurry, but I could make out James talking to the family House Elf who then disappeared upstairs. James crouched down in front of me and placed both hands on my shoulders. It immediately calmed me a little. Was I shaking that violently? He bent his head a little and finally noticed a large ear sticking out from my cloak. With my shaking hand, I pulled back my cloak to reveal Sophie, still frozen.

"Sirius, what happened?"

"I'm sorry James, I couldn't do it anymore and I had nowhere else to go and I couldn't leave her, not there, anywhere but there…"

I knew I was rambling but I didn't and couldn't care. I just couldn't stop. James took Sophie from my arms before giving me the biggest hug I ever had from anyone in my life, even my own parents. I was so tired, that I couldn't do anything, apart from slump against him and cry. Cry like a complete baby. Today's events were still whirling in my mind making my mind cloudy. My arms felt limp, my bruises felt sore and my whole body just ached from 16 weary years of rubbish and abuse from my family.

"W-where am I? Who are you? P-please don't hurt me!"

James and I turned round to see Sophie shivering in the corner of the large hall, a few steps away from James' parents. (When did they get here? Oh great, they saw me acting like a baby!) Someone must have taken the spell off her. Her eyes could have grown to the size of Quaffles, and were definitely full of tears. She was shaking violently like me and her thin arms were trying to cover up her small body, which was covered in bruises and cuts. I crept out of James' embrace and crawled up to her. At the moment, even in my bloody awful state, I was the only one who had a chance of calming her down.

"Sophie," I whispered.

Sophie pulled her hands away a little, her eyes full of tears, just like me. "M-master Sirius?"

"You don't have to call me Master anymore. I told you when we left that I was going to help you and I am. This is James. Do you remember me talking about him? And his parents, Charlus and Dorea Potter," I said gently to her, and pointing to the respected people. They all smiled and waved at her. "And this is Lindor, their House Elf" Lindor smiled and rubbed Sophie's arm affectionately. "They're going to be looking after you now. Nobody's going to hurt you ever again."

Sophie's shaking relaxed a bit, but didn't go away. "Bu-but Master and Mistress-"

"-will have Kreacher. I have something to give you" I pulled off my (now) very soggy shoe and offered it to her. "I'm releasing you from the Black family. You're free."

She started shaking and crying again. "Mas- I mean, Si-, I mean…." She couldn't carry on.

Dorea crouched down and gave Sophie a smile.

"Ferula"she whispered, and bandages immediately appeared on Sophie's worst cuts.

"Welcome to the Potter family my dear." Sophie finally gave a hint of a smile.

"Lindor," Dorea asked sweetly, "Why don't you show Sophie where she'll be staying and make yourselves comfortable for the night. Make sure she gets something to eat and drink and good night's sleep."

Lindor nodded. "Yes Miss Dorea", taking Sophie's trembling hand and leading her to the kitchens.

"I'll take this up to your room Sirius" said Charlus, picking up my backpack. "And James, there's another slice of your mum's fruit cake on the table. You know how much he likes it."

"Wait guys, I don't really know, it's kind of you, but I don't want to intrude on you or-"

James put a hand on my shoulder again. Dorea rubbed my back affectionately.

"Padfoot, I don't know what exactly happened, but do you really think we're going to turn you out?"

I very nearly started crying again whilst they sent me to one of the soft comfy chairs they had. I sat on one of them, and James on a sofa next to me, while Dorea grabbed a piece of cake and a glass. "Aguamenti". The glass immediately filled up with water. She set them both on the shelf next to me. "It's going to be ok Sirius; you're safe now." She turned and nodded at the both of us, and then left, leaving James and I alone. James shifted his head towards the stuff she left for me and nodded. Shakily I reached out and took a few sips of water, feeling it heal my now dry throat and clearing my head a little. I then gingerly took the slice of cake. I split it in half as best as I could and offered some to James, but he shook his head.

'No way. You need it way more than I do.' his eyes said. I took a bite; it was delicious. I always thought Dorea's food was incredible, almost as good as the stuff at Hogwarts, and I hadn't had anything so rich and sweet and just that nice to eat since I left for the summer. So I took another bite, and then another and another until I must have looked like the "Bottomless pit" guy again that I am at Hogwarts because James started to laugh. It seemed small, but even from that, I felt I had some of my energy back. I felt I was Sirius Black again, Marauder, "Ladies-man extraordinaire", Padfoot. After that had gone down and settled into the pit called my stomach, I could feel James' serious gaze on me.

"Ok, Sirius; what happened?"

Wow, where to start? I bit my lips, wrung my hands, started to shake again; that is until I felt a hand on my shoulder again. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. James led me to the floor next to where we were sitting before so he could be closer to me.

"It's ok. Take your time, you don't have to rush."

I swallowed. "I just couldn't take it anymore. You've heard enough about my family to know what they're like, Prongs."

"True. Let me try a different approach then. Why now? What made you snap?"

Snap, snap, snap...

"I'll tell you what made me snap." I snarled (just like a dog), the anger and adrenaline from earlier rising again. "What made me snap was the same reason why I brought her. Why I happen to have a stunned House Elf with me." James rubbed my arm and gently nodded, urging me to go on.

"Sophie only came to us about a week ago, maybe nearly two now. She's only about 3 and my parents bought her off someone to be trained up, to be a "Proper House-Elf"; like they're the best people for the job. Anyway, as you could probably imagine, she didn't really know what to do half the time and Kreacher hated the fact there was another House Elf around. I think he for some reason believed that Sophie was going to come out favourite. Of course, that's not true. If anything, it was the other way around. I was the only one who at least tried to treat her kindly. I would say, smuggle food for her, and tell her stories about you and Remus and Peter. She particularly loves the prank stories." I attempted a smile. James gave me a very proud grin. "She was beaten constantly for tiny things. Don't look so surprised, where did you think she had got all those injuries from? And I was beaten more than usual too for helping her."

James' face fell. I pulled back my sleeve to reveal the bruise from today that was now starting to go purple.

"Sirius…? What…? How…?"

"My dad's job has been going badly since last year, so he turned to the Firewhiskey and took his rage out on me, seeing as I was the "Filthy Blood-traitor". I didn't tell you before because I thought it would go if and when his work got better, you know, but it hasn't. Anyway, that's not even the main point. What made me snap today was not Mum or Dad, but Kreacher. He'd supposedly had enough and the dirty bastard deliberately tripped her up, at the top of the steps, when she was carrying a tray! So of course, she fell badly, and everything smashed. I saw what happened and tried to help her, but Reg blocked the stairs! I tried to fight him, but he's stronger than he looks; all I could do was watch! When Mum saw what happened, she was furious. She beat Sophie and said if one more thing happened again, Sophie's head would end up on our mantelpiece! Dad came out of his study to see what was going on, and then decided to hit me again to get the thought of protecting her out of my head. That was it as far as I was concerned. My time had come, and I had to get her out of there. Mum locked Sophie up and didn't let her do anything else for the rest of the day, thank God. But as soon as it was safe, I packed up, wrote a note to Reg-"

"Huh?"

"I wrote to him. I thought that he had the right to know everything. He still is my brother after all." James nodded. "I had to try, you know, one more time to get and through to him. His Slytherin friends are all becoming Death Eaters and I have a feeling he's going to join them."

"WHAT?! Oh my God!"

"I had to try James. It'll probably be ash by now, but I had to try. I had to tell him that this was the right thing for me to do." I was on the verge of crying again. "Sorry, can we get back to the story?"

"Course," he said, "Carry on."

"Well, I packed, wrote the letter, and waited until everyone was asleep, which took a bloody long time. I then put the letter in Regulus' room and went down to where I knew Sophie would be. I woke her up and tried to talk to her. I told her that we were going to your place. 'You're going to be safe' I said. But I don't know whether she really believed me, or she was being "typical House Elf" loyal to my parents or just plain scared; but she wouldn't come. I was getting worried that Kreacher or my parents were going to wake up, so…" my voice became a lot quieter and I sniffed "I didn't want to do it, but I didn't have any other choice. I put the Body-Bind curse on her. It was the only way for both of us to get out safe, and there was no way I was going to leave without her." I started sobbing and put my hands over my face, wiping my sore eyes. "I then hopped on the Knight Bus to your place. I'm sorry to be like this, and intruding and dumping all my shit on you, but I didn't know where else to go. I didn't know what else to do…"

I felt completely pathetic. I never wanted my brother-in-all-but-blood to see me like this, but I couldn't help it. The stress from not just today or the summer or even maybe the last few years, but from my life end of, came out all at once in a sweaty, salty-teared, snotty mess of a boy on James' floor. His hand shifted from my arm to my back.

"I'm proud of you Sirius. I really am."