Harry Potter and the related characters are the sole property of J. K. Rowling. No malicious intent or ill will is meant by using those characters and events in this fictional work.

Huddled together on the couch, Harry and Hermione stared at the disheveled and downtrodden looking man, now up off the floor and sitting on a chair.

"I'm so bloody confused," Harry said, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. His fingertip grazed the scar on his forehead that hadn't hurt in almost five years. "How...why..."

"I should have tried to find you sooner," Sirius said with downcast eyes, holding the steaming mug of warm, calming tea Hermione had conjured up for him. "I didn't know how many times to turn that bloody thing. It's secondhand, bought it at Borgin and Burkes so heaven knows it probably holds a thousand curses."

Hermione shuddered. "Fitting, isn't it?" she said with a sly but sad smile. "The very thing that saved your life the first time seemed to save it again."

"How?" Harry asked once again. "I was there...I saw you...I saw Bellatrix..."

"It wasn't me, Harry," Sirius confessed with a sigh. "Dumbledore..."

"Of course," Harry snapped, huffing. "It's always his doing." He gritted his teeth and gave a hard sigh. "Go on."

Sirius, taking a shaky breath, nodded once and said, "He had it all planned out, and he summoned me to his office that morning. We were discussing our strategy; he gave me a glass of pumpkin juice. It was laced with a powerful sleeping draught and I was out in moments. He hid me away, and he convinced one of the house elves to drink a modified Polyjuice Potion...my hair as a tasteful garnish, mind you...said that, in return, he'd be given clothes and set free."

"An elf?" Hermione yelped. "After everything I'd done...SPEW...the protests...it all meant nothing?"

Harry gave his wife a quick and soft kiss. "No offense, love, but it never really meant much to anyone, darling." He ducked, avoiding her swatting hand, and he chuckled. "It does now, but, honey, back then we all thought the elves were perfectly happy there."

Sirius laughed at their playful banter, but then his face found gloom again. "Anyway," he said, "By the time I came around, it was all over. Done. I finally blasted my way out of the keeping cell...but I knew I couldn't be seen, now. I knew, whatever his reasons, that he must've thought it was in your best interest. I know, now, Harry, that the man only set you up to fail. To be hurt."

"Don't we all," Hermione muttered.

"I transformed," Sirius continued. "Made my ways as a stray for a while, followed a young Muggle boy home from school one day and stayed with his family as a pet when I needed shelter and...it was nice to have companionship," he admitted with a sentimental smile. "It took me so long to find a way back into London, into Diagon Alley. Almost five years. I summoned up the strength to run away from that sweet child and his family, and in the cloak of night, I broke into Borgin and Burke's. I looked for something...anything that would help me set things right."

"You found that," Harry scoffed, pointing at the silver bauble around his godfather's neck. "Fat lot of good it did you."

"Harry, please," Sirius trembled. "I used it to go back to the night of the war. I saw you two kiss for the first time, I even managed to say a painful goodbye to Lupin, and to Tonks." His bottom lip shook beneath his fuzzy mustache. "I was too late to save them, but I saw their souls." He looked up, hopeful. "How is Teddy?"

Harry squeezed Hermione's hand, smiling at the mention of his own godson. "Happy. At Hogwarts. Gryffindor."

"Of course, he is," Sirius chuckled. "I...I saw you two...behind the smoke and the flame...your first kiss. I saw Ron...fuming like the piles of wood and stone, walk away from you. And when I'd overheard where you two'd plan to run off to, I headed you off. I ran to Grimmauld Place, let myself in, and I waited until I stopped shaking long enough to turn this damned thing again, hoping it would lead me here. Now."

"You couldn't have just used the door, though?" Harry joked, scratching his head. "If you'd burst into flames about five minutes sooner, you'd wish you were still in that dungeon."

Sirius laughed heartily. Hermione blushed profusely. Harry wondered what he said that was so funny, he'd been quite serious.

"No, I..." Sirius struggled to find the right way to explain. "I made some pit stops. I went to your wedding, Harry, and I know Lupin, Tonks...even your parents were there. I saw their paintings lining the hall. I watched your mother cry, and your father beam at you, and I noticed the empty frame." He took a hard breath and added, "Now you know why you couldn't get my..."

"You were alive," Harry nodded. "But you were there. That's what...matters."

Sirius nodded. "I also stopped off to see Hermione finish at Hogwarts, your first...and last...Quidditch game as a Chudley Cannon, and I even spent a few moments watching Hermione teach her Muggle Studies class on first day."

Hermione's eyebrows rose. "That was just last month!"

Sirius nodded. "That's how I knew I was getting closer." He looked at Harry. "I never missed a moment of your life, Harry. Not really. As I've told you before, the ones that love us..."

"Never really leave us," Harry finished. He took a breath and calmed his nerves, and he looked over at Hermione before facing Sirius again. "Well, then, what happens now?"

"Now," Sirius said with a troubled look in his eyes, "I tell you the problem." He gulped down the rest of his tea, immediately feeling the relaxing effects of the spell mixed within. "In my eagerness, I turned the dial a few too many times. I went too far out, and I saw..." he blinked and he held the weight of the world on his shoulders as he looked into Harry's eyes. "Ron Weasley knows how to hold a grudge. Harry, my boy, he intends to make sure your son knows just exactly what sort of childhood you, yourself, had."

Harry gave a tilt of his head as he tried to discern the meaning in Sirius' words. "What d'you mean?" he mumbled, his heart racing.

"I think," Hermione said slowly, "It means Ron's going to try to kill our son. Well, when we have one, he will, knowing we will step in just as your parents did. He's going to try to kill us."

Sirius nodded, but then looked at Harry and Hermione, his once dead eyes full of life and passion. "Mark my words, Harry, I will not let that happen. The past is fixable, the future...well, that's entirely preventable."

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Peace and Love

Jo